According to Atlas VPN, Apple’s Safari web browser has more than one billion users. Google’s Chrome is the only other browser with more than a billion users. Chrome, with roughly 3.4 billion users, still outnumbers Safari.
It’s vital to remember that these figures include both desktop and mobile users. Safari’s function as the default browser for both the iPhone and iPad is likely to be considerably more important than its use on the Mac.
Given that Safari is the only major web browser that isn’t accessible on Android, the world’s most popular mobile operating system, or Windows, the most popular desktop operating system, it’s an astonishing feat.
Where the numbers come from
To clarify how it arrived at the number, Atlas VPN posted on its blog:
“The statistics are based on the GlobalStats browser market share percentage, which was then converted into numbers using the Internet World Stats internet user metric to retrieve the exact numbers.”
According to the statistics, Chrome has 3,378,967,819 users, while Safari has 1,006,232,879. Microsoft’s Edge is in the third position, with 212,695,363 users. At 179,084,244, Firefox is right behind Edge in fourth place. According to the blog post, Edge only surpassed Firefox for the third position in the past year.
Apple still lags behind
Apple had bigger plans for Safari in the past, and there was even a Windows version of the browser. However, Apple stopped developing that version in June 2010. You can still use Safari on Windows 10 or 11, but it’s not a good idea from a security standpoint.
While Safari is the default web browser on iOS, third-party browsers may be installed and used on the iPhone and iPad. It’s been possible to use a browser other than Safari as your default since 2020.
However, the distinction between Safari and a third-party iPhone browser is superficial, seeing as they are driven by the same Safari technologies, which enable unique features found in those browsers to show up on iOS.