Browser Popularity by Country and Device

The popularity of browsers varies significantly from country to country. Chrome and Safari lead the global market, but their market share can vary greatly in specific regions, and in some GEOs, local and less common browsers account for a significant portion of the audience.

We analyzed browser traffic by country and looked separately at mobile and desktop devices. This gave us a more detailed picture: where Chrome dominates, in which countries Safari is particularly strong, and where Opera, Samsung Browser, UC Browser, Firefox, and other alternatives are worth considering.

For advertisers, these differences are important in practice: browser data, combined with geographic location and device type, helps them better understand their audience and fine-tune their campaign targeting.

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As expected, Chrome and Safari dominate the world market, with Chrome holding around 66% of global traffic and Safari accounting for around 15%. Another 13% is split between less popular browsers, such as: Opera, Samsung Browser, Google Search, UC Browser, and Firefox. And the remaining 6% belongs to even lesser-known browsers.

This overview was just the tip of the iceberg. Further, you’ll see that segmenting each browser by mobile and desktop devices, the popularity by country highly varies even within a single region.

Chrome Mobile is on top of its popularity in South America, Africa, and large parts of Asia and Europe.

On the other hand, Chrome Mobile is not used that common in places like North America, Australia, Northern Europe, Japan, and Russia. There Chrome’s dominance dips below 50%.

Finally, there’s China, where Chrome is officially blocked.

Interestingly, we registered 10% Chrome usage in China. It can be explained by the fact, that local browsers adopt Chrome’s user agent string, tricking some data tools into counting it as Chrome traffic.

On desktops, Chrome’s usage rate varies more than on mobile. It remains the top pick in Asia and South America, though its traffic share here is 10-15% lower compared to mobile.

In Europe, Chrome’s desktop popularity dips even further, especially in GEOs like Germany, Austria, and Switzerland.

Meanwhile, Chrome doesn’t register much on desktops in most African countries and some Asian and South American nations.

China stands out again, as local browsers using Chrome’s user agent (like 360 Browser) have a higher share on desktops than on mobile.

Even though Safari occupies much less of traffic worldwide compare to Google’s browser (15% vs 66%, see the statistics in Section 1.), there are certain regions, where it managed to overplay Chrome.

In fact, Safari’s success often correlates with regions where Chrome is less popular.

Let’s find out more about both Mobile and Desktop shares.

Safari Mobile dominates in the United States, Canada, Australia, Japan, and Northern Europe (especially in Norway and Sweden) markets. These are regions where Chrome usage is notably less prevalent, giving Safari a stronger foothold among mobile users.

Similarly, Safari’s desktop presence mirrors its mobile dominance.
However, a unique trend is observed in Saudi Arabia and Iraq, where Safari’s desktop version has a particularly high user share, setting these regions apart from others in terms of desktop browser preference.

In our study, Chrome remains the clear leader, accounting for about 66% of traffic, while Safari accounts for approximately 15%. However, the data by country is much less predictable than one might expect based on global trends, especially when mobile and desktop traffic are considered separately.

This is particularly noticeable on desktop computers. In India, the United States, Germany, and Japan, Chrome and Safari combined account for less than 80% of traffic. Other browsers hold a significant share in these markets, making the desktop environment much more diverse than the mobile environment, where Chrome and Safari generally dominate to a greater extent.

And this isn’t limited to mainstream alternatives like Firefox or Edge. Some smaller browsers have managed to build a surprisingly strong user base in certain countries and regions. So, let’s take a look at where they’re actually popular and whether their features are the same on mobile devices and desktop computers.

Surprisingly, there is a number of other browsers beside Chrome and Safari, which can claim their corner of the market.

• Opera shines in South and Southeast Asia, including India, Bangladesh, and Indonesia.
• Samsung Browser has a stronghold in various individual countries rather than an entire region, including the U.S., India, Germany, South Korea, and Indonesia.
• Google Search App usage spikes in Japan and is also popular in India, the U.S., and Vietnam.
• UC Browser thrives in South, East, and Southeast Asia—from Indonesia to India, China, and Bangladesh, with an outlier in France, where it holds 8% of traffic.
• Firefox enjoys popularity in Germany, the U.S., Japan, India, and France.
• Edge gains traction in the U.S., Japan, India, and Germany, though in China, as with Chrome, local browsers often emulate its user agent.

Countries like India, the U.S., Germany, and Japan are hotspots for browser diversity.

Certain countries have embraced browsers that are otherwise minor players globally, giving advertisers valuable insight into local preferences:

• Baidu App dominates in China with a solid 14% share.
• Firefox holds 10% of the market in Luxembourg.
• Google Search App leads with 15% in Laos.
• Opera is the top choice in Bangladesh (22%), with significant shares (around 14-15%) in Somalia, Libya, Tanzania, Kuwait, Pakistan, and Cameroon.
• Samsung Browser is widely used in South Korea (14%), Tanzania (13%), and Iran (11%).
• UC Browser captures 22% in Qatar and holds 13% for both Bahrain and Pakistan.
• Yandex naturally leads in Russia (28%), with strong showings in Uzbekistan (12%) and Belarus (10%).

Looking at global browser stats is useful, but only up to a point. Once you narrow things down to a specific GEO – and especially to desktop or mobile traffic – the numbers can look quite different.

That’s worth keeping in mind when setting up a campaign. Chrome and Safari will cover a large part of the audience in most cases, but not all of it. In some countries, browsers like Firefox, Edge, Opera, Samsung Browser, UC Browser, or Yandex take a big enough share that they’re hard to ignore.

This doesn’t mean you need a separate campaign for every browser. Most of the time, you won’t. But checking the browser split for your target country can tell you a bit more about the traffic you’re buying and, in some cases, point to an audience you might not have considered.

So rather than treating worldwide browser shares as a rule, use them as a starting point. What people actually browse with depends a lot on where they are and what device they’re using.