Firefox 4 downloaded nearly 9 million times

Mozilla published Firefox 4 yesterday and in the first 24 hours the browser was downloaded 5 million times, easily beating the 2.4 million downloads of Microsoft's Internet Explorer 9 browser in its first day of availability earlier this month. It's not a new record for Mozilla though, the launch of Firefox 3 was more successful with over 8 million downloads in the first 24 hours after launch in June 2008, which earned the company a Guinness World Record.

At press time, Mozilla's Firefox 4 download counter reveals that the new browser has been downloaded 8.98 million times.

And earlier today StatCounter issued a press release to announce that Firefox 4 has already taken 1.95 percent of world's web traffic:

Mozilla Firefox 4, which was launched yesterday (Tuesday 22nd March), has already taken 1.95% of the worldwide Internet browser market according to StatCounter, the free website analytics company. The firm's research arm StatCounter Global Stats reports that on the first day of its release Firefox 4 scored higher globally than Microsoft's new Internet Explorer 9 which was launched more than a week ago.*

Although IE 9 has undoubtedly been hampered by its lack of compatibility with Windows XP.

Firefox 4 has really hit the ground running and has eclipsed the launch of IE 9," commented Aodhan Cullen, CEO, StatCounter. "Although IE 9 has undoubtedly been hampered by its lack of compatibility with Windows XP." By yesterday IE 9 had taken just 0.87% of the worldwide market.

When all versions of each browser are taken into account, Internet Explorer still leads the global market with 45% followed by Firefox with 30% and Chrome with 17%. In the US, IE (all versions combined) leads the market with 48% followed by Firefox on 26% and Chrome on 14%.

On a monthly basis, StatCounter figures show a steady decline in the IE global market share from 55% in February last year to 45% this year. In the same time frame Google's Chrome has risen steadily from 7% worldwide to 17%.

StatCounter recently reported that Firefox overtook Microsoft's Internet Explorer (IE) to become the number one browser in Europe for the first time in December 2010.

StatCounter Global Stats are based on aggregate data collected on a sample exceeding 15 billion page views per month (4 billion from the US) from the StatCounter network of more than three million websites.

StatCounter, which provides free website stats, publishes browser version stats via StatCounter Global Stats, a free online research tool. It also monitors other Internet market share battles including Social Media.

* IE 9 and Firefox 4 were both available for beta testing prior to their respective launch dates