Firefox 2: 30 downloads per second

Firefox 2 had over 2 million downloads in the first 24 hours with demand as high as 30 downloads a second at times.

The Firefox team are well on the way to overshadowing the 3 million in 4 days that downloaded IE7. It takes a few days to update the stats as they need to get the figures in from the mirror sites.

Of course download stats don’t equal users. Some people may need to download the browser simply to test their websites with, others may be curious to try the browser out but then go back to their usual browser, others may download multiple copies for multiple machines and others may just download one copy and share it with many.

However, one thing the stats show is that interest in Firefox 2 remains very strong, although the download figures will spike in IE’s favour once the automatic updates kick in during November.

23 Responses to “Firefox 2: 30 downloads per second”

  1. James Park Says:

    That’s quite amazing, every release they break their previous record.

  2. Melissa Says:

    world domination here we come!

  3. BOFH Says:

    2 million downloads is nothing. everyone knows that open source people are more fanatical than microsoft users so many of them would have been hiiting reload on mozilla.org just waiting for the release. microsoft users would just get round to doing it at a random time, no need to rush. i bet most firefox users downloaded on day one and they don’t beat ies 3 million in 4 days

  4. Retarded Monk Says:

    The historical trend for Firefox downloads is to increase day on day for the first week as word spreads via blogs and then it starts a slow decline and more and more people download it. Then there’s a small spike everytime an IE security alert makes the mainstream press.

  5. Stefan Ericsson Says:

    The Mozilla team should be very proud of this achievement. Don’t forget those responsible for running the servers that can cope with this demand.

  6. Aaron Brown Says:

    Does this figure include automatic updates or just downloads via the FTP site?

  7. The Nokia Tone Says:

    I’m off to a Firefox release party tonight. Time to open the champagne

  8. browserden Says:

    Auto updates weren’t included, in fact it wasn’t available for auto update in the first 24 hours.

  9. John Says:

    I downloaded both IE7 and Firefox the day they were launched. I have to run IE7 in a virtual machine because IE7 and IE6 can’t coexist peacefully. I need them both for testing :(

  10. Sander Says:

    Aaron Brown: Neither. Automatic updates are never counted, but haven’t happened yet (other than for those who installed alphas, betas and release candidates for Firefox 2) as the current 1.5.0.x update mechanism doesn’t support major version upgrades. (Either the forthcoming update to 1.5.0.8 or 1.5.0.9 will enable that, and then from there the users will be offered the upgrade to 2.0.)
    Direct FTP downloads (such as from the day-early announcements on slashdot and digg) are meanwhile nearly impossible to count due to the large mirror network, each with their own logs. The best estimate for those downloads on that one day was 80.000, but that figure isn’t part of the 2M.

    So what the 2M figure is, is _purely_ downloads directly from mozilla.com through the “bouncer” tool (which basically counts the click and then redirects to one of the mirrors for downloading).

  11. BigAl Says:

    Download figure is fantastic. Competition keeps MS on their toes, without FireFox we’d have no IE7, if FireFox 2.0 is popular they’ll keep the IE team around and the big 3 browsers (FireFox, Oprah and IE) will have to keep getting better.

    John, to run IE6 and IE7 together use this: http://weblogs.asp.net/jgalloway/archive/2006/07/26/IE7-Standalone-_2800_Updated-for-IE7-Beta-3_2900_.aspx

  12. Dean Says:

    Please don’t use the method BigAl mentions to run IE6 and IE7 on the machine. This method is not supported. Please use Virtual PC

  13. PlanetOl Says:

    Quoting Sander “as the current 1.5.0.x update mechanism doesn’t support major version upgrades”

    whoopsie :-/

    How did they miss that feature out?

    Dean: using Virtual PC needs you to buy another Windows liscence to be legal, that’s why it’s Microsofts chosen method of running side by side. They know all these professional web developers need two versions of IE (at least - some people still have to support 5.x) and companies want to stay legal so it helps keep Windows sales up while they ready vista

  14. Chinny Jim Says:

    Should I download the version with or without the Google toolbar?

  15. FreeSoftNews » Blog Archive » Firefox 2 Downloads Top 2 million in 24 Hours Says:

    […] “Firefox 2.0 has had over two million downloads in 24 hours with a peak rate of over 30 downloads a second. This means Firefox is well on track to beat IE7’s three million in four days. Of course stats don’t equal users but it’s interesting to see that the demand for Firefox is currently outstripping IE.” […]

  16. Bob Harris Says:

    Jim: Personally I’d go for the version without the Google toolbar. The only useful feature in the Google toolbar now is ‘PageRank’ indicator, all the other useful features have now been incorporated into version 2.

    Also you can add the Google toolbar later on if you need it.

  17. ChrisNI Says:

    No surprise - it is a superior product after all.

  18. PabloG » Blog Archive » links for 2006-10-31 Says:

    […] The Browser Den » Blog Archive » Firefox 2: 30 downloads per second (tags: firefox ie7 statistiques OpenSource browser) […]

  19. Ajay Says:

    This Firefox 2.0 version is good.

  20. 2 Million Downloads for Firefox 2.0 in First 24 Hours « Linux and Open Source Blog Says:

    […] However, one thing the statistics show is that interest in Firefox 2 remains strong, although the download figures will spike in IE’s favour once the automatic updates kick in during November, reads the post over at Browser Den. […]

  21. Uni.Chen Says:

    Who can tell me how many times that the firefox 2.0 has been download until now ? And IE 7.0?

  22. Kristin Says:

    awesome

  23. Get Firefox 2.0 : Sitting on the Rock, staring at the sky Says:

    […] Interesting bit of statistics, from Slashdot: “Firefox 2.0 has had over two million downloads in 24 hours with a peak rate of over 30 downloads a second. This means Firefox is well on track to beat IE7’s three million in four days. Of course stats don’t equal users but it’s interesting to see that the demand for Firefox is currently outstripping IE.” […]

Firefox 2: 30 downloads per second

Firefox 2 had over 2 million downloads in the first 24 hours with demand as high as 30 downloads a second at times.

The Firefox team are well on the way to overshadowing the 3 million in 4 days that downloaded IE7. It takes a few days to update the stats as they need to get the figures in from the mirror sites.

Of course download stats don’t equal users. Some people may need to download the browser simply to test their websites with, others may be curious to try the browser out but then go back to their usual browser, others may download multiple copies for multiple machines and others may just download one copy and share it with many.

However, one thing the stats show is that interest in Firefox 2 remains very strong, although the download figures will spike in IE’s favour once the automatic updates kick in during November.

23 Responses to “Firefox 2: 30 downloads per second”

  1. James Park Says:

    That’s quite amazing, every release they break their previous record.

  2. Melissa Says:

    world domination here we come!

  3. BOFH Says:

    2 million downloads is nothing. everyone knows that open source people are more fanatical than microsoft users so many of them would have been hiiting reload on mozilla.org just waiting for the release. microsoft users would just get round to doing it at a random time, no need to rush. i bet most firefox users downloaded on day one and they don’t beat ies 3 million in 4 days

  4. Retarded Monk Says:

    The historical trend for Firefox downloads is to increase day on day for the first week as word spreads via blogs and then it starts a slow decline and more and more people download it. Then there’s a small spike everytime an IE security alert makes the mainstream press.

  5. Stefan Ericsson Says:

    The Mozilla team should be very proud of this achievement. Don’t forget those responsible for running the servers that can cope with this demand.

  6. Aaron Brown Says:

    Does this figure include automatic updates or just downloads via the FTP site?

  7. The Nokia Tone Says:

    I’m off to a Firefox release party tonight. Time to open the champagne

  8. browserden Says:

    Auto updates weren’t included, in fact it wasn’t available for auto update in the first 24 hours.

  9. John Says:

    I downloaded both IE7 and Firefox the day they were launched. I have to run IE7 in a virtual machine because IE7 and IE6 can’t coexist peacefully. I need them both for testing :(

  10. Sander Says:

    Aaron Brown: Neither. Automatic updates are never counted, but haven’t happened yet (other than for those who installed alphas, betas and release candidates for Firefox 2) as the current 1.5.0.x update mechanism doesn’t support major version upgrades. (Either the forthcoming update to 1.5.0.8 or 1.5.0.9 will enable that, and then from there the users will be offered the upgrade to 2.0.)
    Direct FTP downloads (such as from the day-early announcements on slashdot and digg) are meanwhile nearly impossible to count due to the large mirror network, each with their own logs. The best estimate for those downloads on that one day was 80.000, but that figure isn’t part of the 2M.

    So what the 2M figure is, is _purely_ downloads directly from mozilla.com through the “bouncer” tool (which basically counts the click and then redirects to one of the mirrors for downloading).

  11. BigAl Says:

    Download figure is fantastic. Competition keeps MS on their toes, without FireFox we’d have no IE7, if FireFox 2.0 is popular they’ll keep the IE team around and the big 3 browsers (FireFox, Oprah and IE) will have to keep getting better.

    John, to run IE6 and IE7 together use this: http://weblogs.asp.net/jgalloway/archive/2006/07/26/IE7-Standalone-_2800_Updated-for-IE7-Beta-3_2900_.aspx

  12. Dean Says:

    Please don’t use the method BigAl mentions to run IE6 and IE7 on the machine. This method is not supported. Please use Virtual PC

  13. PlanetOl Says:

    Quoting Sander “as the current 1.5.0.x update mechanism doesn’t support major version upgrades”

    whoopsie :-/

    How did they miss that feature out?

    Dean: using Virtual PC needs you to buy another Windows liscence to be legal, that’s why it’s Microsofts chosen method of running side by side. They know all these professional web developers need two versions of IE (at least - some people still have to support 5.x) and companies want to stay legal so it helps keep Windows sales up while they ready vista

  14. Chinny Jim Says:

    Should I download the version with or without the Google toolbar?

  15. FreeSoftNews » Blog Archive » Firefox 2 Downloads Top 2 million in 24 Hours Says:

    […] “Firefox 2.0 has had over two million downloads in 24 hours with a peak rate of over 30 downloads a second. This means Firefox is well on track to beat IE7’s three million in four days. Of course stats don’t equal users but it’s interesting to see that the demand for Firefox is currently outstripping IE.” […]

  16. Bob Harris Says:

    Jim: Personally I’d go for the version without the Google toolbar. The only useful feature in the Google toolbar now is ‘PageRank’ indicator, all the other useful features have now been incorporated into version 2.

    Also you can add the Google toolbar later on if you need it.

  17. ChrisNI Says:

    No surprise - it is a superior product after all.

  18. PabloG » Blog Archive » links for 2006-10-31 Says:

    […] The Browser Den » Blog Archive » Firefox 2: 30 downloads per second (tags: firefox ie7 statistiques OpenSource browser) […]

  19. Ajay Says:

    This Firefox 2.0 version is good.

  20. 2 Million Downloads for Firefox 2.0 in First 24 Hours « Linux and Open Source Blog Says:

    […] However, one thing the statistics show is that interest in Firefox 2 remains strong, although the download figures will spike in IE’s favour once the automatic updates kick in during November, reads the post over at Browser Den. […]

  21. Uni.Chen Says:

    Who can tell me how many times that the firefox 2.0 has been download until now ? And IE 7.0?

  22. Kristin Says:

    awesome

  23. Get Firefox 2.0 : Sitting on the Rock, staring at the sky Says:

    […] Interesting bit of statistics, from Slashdot: “Firefox 2.0 has had over two million downloads in 24 hours with a peak rate of over 30 downloads a second. This means Firefox is well on track to beat IE7’s three million in four days. Of course stats don’t equal users but it’s interesting to see that the demand for Firefox is currently outstripping IE.” […]