Which Browsers Are Important For Your Cross Browser Testing?

Let’s Begin!

Google Chrome has been the most used web browser worldwide from a while now but that doesn’t mean you can turn a blind eye towards its competitors Mozilla Firefox, and Safari is equally trending across different devices. Opera is the second most important browser in Africa and UC browser in Asia. Researching and analyzing market shares of various important web browsers and web browser versions, geographically and cross platform, can help to strategize cross browser testing of an application.

Market Share of Web Browsers Worldwide

According to the data fetched from Statcounter, we can interpret that, in the past 12 months Google Chrome, undoubtedly has the highest market share with approximately 60% worldwide. Followed by Safari with approximately 15% Firefox with 6%, and so on. So it’s only natural to develop your website in a manner that they are compatible across these web browsers, as they are the trending ones. Also, make sure you test on Safari and other browsers. However, this data is still too vague and it is necessary to delve deeper by filtering out a few details that would help to prioritize and strategize cross browser testing process for your websites or web-app.

To illustrate my point, I’d like you to take a look at below two stats:

Important Browser Versions Observation

As of 2026, the five most important browsers for cross browser testing are Google Chrome, Safari, Microsoft Edge, Mozilla Firefox, and Samsung Internet, based on current global usage share. Chrome leads with about 68% of global usage, Safari follows at around 16%, and Edge, Firefox, and Samsung Internet make up most of the rest.

Internet Explorer no longer belongs on that list. Microsoft has retired Internet Explorer, so that time is better spent on cross browser testing for Edge, which now draws more global traffic than Firefox.

Browsers Other Than Chrome

The above graph indicates monthly trends of important browser market shares for the past year. If we closely analyze the graph for the past 12 months, we can also see, there has been a rapid hike in the market share of Samsung Internet in the last 6 months, along with the fall of UC Browser.

Do AI Browsers Like Perplexity Comet Change Cross Browser Testing in 2026?

In 2026, most consumer AI browsing agents, such as Perplexity Comet and the Claude and Gemini extensions for Chrome, run on the same Chromium engine as Chrome itself, so your existing Chrome test coverage already handles most of what they render.

• Chromium under the hood: Perplexity Comet, Claude for Chrome, and Gemini in Chrome all sit on top of the Chromium engine, so a page that renders correctly in Chrome renders correctly for most of these agents too.
• Agent mode navigation: these tools include an agent mode that clicks links, fills forms, and completes multi-step tasks without a person at the keyboard, so a test pass should confirm your forms and buttons still respond when driven by a script instead of a mouse.
• Keep the list short: AI browsers appear and disappear quickly, so pin your matrix to the engines rather than the brands. A browser built on Chromium inherits Blink rendering, which means your existing Chromium coverage already tells you most of what you need.
• Real limitation: none of these agents replace cross browser testing on Safari or Firefox, since an agent's Chromium engine will not catch a rendering bug that only shows up in Safari's WebKit engine.

Automation frameworks such as the open source browser-use tool drive these same Chromium and WebKit engines through Playwright, so the browser matrix a tester has to cover has not actually grown, it has just gained a new kind of visitor.

Targeting Second Most Important Browsers On The Basis Of Different Continents

We know it by now, that Chrome is the most preferable browser option for a majority of internet users. But which is the next one? Knowing the second most preferred option is pivotal for targeting a global audience towards your website or web-app. And the competition for the second spot varies differently across different continents. Let’s analyze the second most important browsers on the basis of different continents.

It is imperative to keep a track on sources responsible for bringing you with the majority of your web traffic. Here are some web analytic tools to help you understand your users better.

Asia

After Chrome, UC Browser is the most important browser in the continent of Asia. Also, It can be concluded that Safari has also taken a hike in the first quarter of 2019. So, both the browsers are matching each other neck to neck in the race for the second spot within Asia.

Africa

When it comes to Africa, then Opera is dominating in the second position, after Google Chrome of course.

Europe

In Europe, Safari is considered the second-best option, after Google Chrome. Although, Mozilla Firefox has also got a considerable fair share in the market of Europe. So the 3 most important browsers for Europe market would Google Chrome, Safari, Firefox.

North America

Similar to Europe the spot for first and second most important browser go to Google Chrome & Safari respectively. The spot for 3rd place now goes to Microsoft Edge, since it ships by default on Windows; Internet Explorer is retired and no longer part of the ranking.

South America

Chrome has dominated this continent in unequivocally. Far from the number 1 position, Safari is being the second most choice, but only just, as Mozilla Firefox is considerably close as the third preference.

Australia

Just like North America, Safari outruns other browsers for number 2 spot.

Antarctica

Not one of the continents that most of us would be concerned about considering the population on it. However, according to Wikipedia, about 5,000 people reside in the science stations temporarily, throughout a year.

Interestingly, Mozilla Firefox is considerably near to being the first most preference in Antarctica’s market share.

Targeting Most Important Browsers On The Basis Of Different Devices

Now that we are aware of which browsers to target for different continents. We now will look into the most important browsers based on the devices being used.

Desktops

Chrome stands tall again on desktop, at roughly 71% of usage, with Microsoft Edge in second place at around 11%, since it ships by default on Windows. Microsoft has retired Internet Explorer, so it no longer needs a place in your desktop test matrix.

Mobiles

A majority of users prefer Google Chrome to surf the internet through mobile devices. Surprisingly to many of us, Mozilla Firefox has a hardly noticeable market share. Safari and UC browsers are holding the second and third favorable spot respectively.

Tablets

Safari beats Chrome. As seen from the chart below, it can be concluded that more than half of the browser market share lies with Safari in case of tablets. I believe, the primary reason for that lies with the dominance of iPads from Apple.

Considering Android

When we look into the market share of Android browsers then we can notice a very dramatic shift between Chrome and Safari in recent months.

Peculiarities

There are also a few browsers that although, are not globally renowned but are most important browsers after Google Chrome in some countries. I will be talking about two such peculiarities.

Russia and Yandex

If you are targeting users from Europe & Asia then Russia comes as a major consideration for many enterprises. An interesting thing to notice in Russia is that after Google Chrome the second most important browser is Yandex. You may or may not have heard of it. The statistics of Yandex are not noticeable on a global scale. However, if you are targeting Russia, then it is one browser that you should not miss out on.

Test your website on Yandex with TestMu AI, a cross browser testing cloud that offers a Selenium Grid of 2000+ real browsers & browser versions. Click here to get started for free.

China – Sogou and QQ

After Chrome, Native Browsers of China like QQ Browser and Sogou Browser are used fairly on Desktops. Both QQ & Sogou browsers are based on Google Chrome as a wrapper. In case, you don’t have access to these browsers and there is a fairly good chance that you don’t, then don’t worry! You can test your web-app or website on the latest 5 versions of Google Chrome and be pretty certain about the cross browser compatibility of your website or web app across China.

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