Firefox 4 Blasts Past IE9 in Day 1 Downloads

Last week, Microsoft proudly announced that Internet Explorer 9 had been downloaded 2.35 million times in the first 24 hours of availability, and we have to admit, we were impressed. With Firefox 4 launching just a little over a week after IE9, we were eager to see how the download numbers would compare.

Mozilla's method for showing off its impressive number of downloads is a little different. Rather than announce it via its blog, the company has created a website specially for the purpose and the number is updating in real time. By the end of yesterday, Mozilla had logged around 3 million and at 10 a.m. this morning, it was at around 7 million.

Mozilla's stat counter site, glow.mozilla.org, is actually very neat. It shows you how many people are downloading Firefox 4, and, thanks to the wonders of IP addresses, where they are in the world. You can also break it down by continent, country, state and city.

There’s no way of knowing if this tracker takes into account downloads that were started on Monday, when a link to the final version on Mozilla's FTP was posted on news sites and forums around the web. Mozilla has yet to release an official statement on how the first day of downloads went, but no doubt we’ll hear from them soon enough, and hopefully it will clarify things.

Try Firefox out here:

Windows : http://www.tomsguide.com/us/download/Mozilla-Firefox,0301-7374.html
Mac : http://www.tomsguide.com/us/download/Mozilla-Firefox,0301-7374-27688.html
Linux : http://www.tomsguide.com/us/download/Mozilla-Firefox,0301-7374-27690.html
Linux x64 : http://www.tomsguide.com/us/download/Mozilla-Firefox,0301-7374-27692.html

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7

dark_lord69 , March 23, 2011 9:39 PM

I'd be interested to see the browser speed tests again with thie one included.
0

dameon51 , March 23, 2011 9:45 PM

No downloads in Madagascar yet.
1

bhaberle , March 23, 2011 9:48 PM

I agree with dark_lord69. I wonder how Firefox users were made aware of the new 4.0 firefox though. The only way I got IE9 is by going to Microsoft's site.
2

amdwilliam1985 , March 23, 2011 9:49 PM

I contributed 3 downloads to the total.
-1

homegrownxxx , March 23, 2011 9:54 PM

I thought this was kind of amusing when I took a screenshot.
0

homegrownxxx , March 23, 2011 9:55 PM

Hmmm link didn't work,but here's what I was talking about.

http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w46/homegrownxxx/firefoxdownloads2.jpg
1

WR2 , March 23, 2011 10:03 PM

Time to go get mine.
0

SteelCity1981 , March 23, 2011 10:07 PM

Well there goes Microsofts thunder of IE 9 right out the window.
1

Darkerson , March 23, 2011 10:15 PM

About to hit the 8 million mark as I type this. WTG Mozilla!
0

JohnnyLucky , March 23, 2011 10:17 PM

Interesting to go take a look and see where in the world the browser is being downloaded.
1

Hellbound , March 23, 2011 10:18 PM

I downloaded it yesterday and I like it.
1

eddieroolz , March 23, 2011 10:19 PM

Didn't contribute to one and probably won't end up doing so. Still, congratulations to the Mozilla team.
0

ikefu , March 23, 2011 10:28 PM

Got it yesterday and I'm a fan. The ability to sync bookmarks between my laptop, desktop, and phone is fantastic.
1

angaduday , March 23, 2011 10:29 PM

are the updates from Firefox 4 RC2 also counted????
2

reggieray , March 23, 2011 10:38 PM

Why did Toms stop user ratings of posts? Is it my browser? It lets you vote but then if you reload the page they are all at 0 again.
1

anonymous@guest , March 23, 2011 10:42 PM

Apparently downloads from the ftp site link were not counted. So all of us early birds are not in the numbers.
Looks like it was just the link from firefox.com

Oh well.
0

flightmare , March 23, 2011 10:46 PM

Is this information gathered by the browser itself? Otherwise it would exclude all mirror downloads I think. I downloaded it from Launchpad.
-1

HighPies , March 23, 2011 10:49 PM

Almost no downloads happening in SA cause people here use something good, like idk....Chrome

jk's gj mozilla team.
1

hixbot , March 23, 2011 11:04 PM

Are the auto-upgrades included? Most people with firefox are updated automatically.
-3

Lan , March 23, 2011 11:06 PM

Firefox is over rated IMO.

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