Microsoft has published various figures about its Microsoft Edge browser and their behavior in the year that is about to end. According to Statcounter, in December 2024 it has managed to reach a share of desktop browser users of 13.19% of the total compared to 11.9% a year ago. Meanwhile, Chrome remains unattainable, consolidating its leadership in this segment and even expanding its user base: 66.31% in this month of December, when in December 2023 it had 65.23%.
Among the most notable data revealed by Redmond, it stands out that around 10 billion AI chats have been made with Copilot from the Edge browser window, and that around 38 billion characters have been translated automatically.
They also highlight that they have managed to save 7 billion MB of PC memory thanks to the use of sleeping tabs, and that Bing, Microsoft’s search engine, has reached 140 million daily active users. Of course, what they have not commented on has been the information about the browser corresponding to raw usage, which may be due to the fact that its growth throughout the year has been quite scarce.
The increase in popularity of Chrome came precisely due to fatigue with Internet Explorer and its updates. So, Microsoft’s browser was slow and had certain problems, and Chrome was light and fast, something it hasn’t been for a long time. But getting out of their networks is complicated. Microsoft has tried to do this with Edge, using its own search engine, EdgeHTML, but had to give up and move to a Chromium-based Edge as we know it today.
But it is not the only Chromium-based browser. With a few exceptions, such as Mozilla’s Firefox and some of its derivatives, Chromium is by far the dominant search engine among browsers, which can make it difficult to distinguish between browsers. Microsoft has tried by all means to bring more users to Edge, but its competition has accused them of using unclear tactics to do so. Still, getting users to change is not so simple, since in most cases they need good reasons to do so.
Although US lawmakers could force Google to outsource Chrome if they ultimately decide that it has to be split into several companies due to official investigations it has to face, the current differences between browsers may still not be enough of an incentive. to make its users change browsers.
Microsoft tries this by offering details about its features, and the numbers they are achieving. Thus, the company points out that Protect 7.3 billion passwords every month with Edge. It also highlights that its users can try AI-powered Edge tools. But it is unlikely that this alone will achieve more user share in 2025.
