The two most popular browsers - Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox are currently in a race to version 100. Currently, the latest Firefox version is Firefox 88 version while Chrome is at version Chrome 90. As Chrome is 2 versions ahead, does it mean Google Chrome will be the first to hit version 100? Let's find out!

Browser Market Share

Firefox Release Cycle Analysis

To determine which browser will reach the 100th version first, it's best to look at the dates of the past stable releases. Firefox has adopted a rapid release calendar plan, which means they have a strict four-week release cycle. The following table shows the last five releases by Firefox:

The latest version is Firefox 88, released on April 19, 2021. As we know that each next version is released every four weeks, we can calculate the future releases. We get the following data:

  • Firefox 89 - 2021/06/01
  • Firefox 90 - 2021/07/13
  • Firefox 91 - 2021/08/10
  • Firefox 92 - 2021/09/07
  • Firefox 93 - 2021/10/05
  • Firefox 94 - 2021/11/02
  • Firefox 95 - 2021/12/07
  • Firefox 96 - 2022/01/11
  • Firefox 97 - 2022/02/08
  • Firefox 98 - 2022/03/08
  • Firefox 99 - 2022/04/05
  • Firefox 100 - 2022/05/03

From this data, we can see that Firefox is expected to release its 100th version on May 3, 2022. This is assuming there are no delays in any of the future releases.

Note: You can launch all Firefox versions online from the Browserling cloud infrastructure by visiting the online browser page or by using this browser selection widget:

Chrome Release Cycle Analysis

On the other side, Google Chrome currently is released every 6 weeks, which is two weeks more than Firefox. To their advantage, Chrome is currently running version 90, which is 2 versions ahead of Firefox and was released on April 13, 2021. Google Chrome's last five releases were the following:

At this rate, Google Chrome is expected to release its 100th version on June 7, 2022 and it looks like Mozilla Firefox will hit their 100th version much earlier than Google Chrome. But, there is a huge twist in this plan!

New Google Chrome Release Cycle

On March 4, 2021, Google announced the following changes to their release cycle:

"We are excited to announce that Chrome is planning to move to releasing a new milestone every 4 weeks, starting with Chrome 94 in Q3 of 2021."

Google Chrome 94 will be released on September 21, 2021 and from this day onwards, Google will push new releases to their users every four weeks instead of six. On this day, Firefox will be at version 92 and both browsers will move at a constant pace relative to each other. Therefore, the first browser with the larger version on September 21, 2021 will be the first to reach version 100 (assuming the release cycles after this date remain the same). Now that we know this new information, it's easy to see Google Chrome will therefore win the race to the 100th version.

First Browser to Version 100

To be absolutely sure, let's check the release calendar of Google Chrome. It has the following data:

  • Chrome 91 - 2021/05/25
  • Chrome 92 - 2021/07/20
  • Chrome 93 - 2021/08/31
  • Chrome 94 - 2021/09/21
  • Chrome 95 - 2021/10/19
  • Chrome 96 - 2021/11/16
  • Chrome 97 - 2022/01/04
  • Chrome 98 - 2022/02/01
  • Chrome 99 - 2022/03/01
  • Chrome 100 - 2022/03/29

We can see that the expected 100th release date of Chrome is Tuesday, March 29, 2022. On this day, Firefox will be only at version 98 and will have its 100th version released on Tuesday, May 3, 2022.

If you'd like to try all versions of browsers, then you can try Browserling - a cloud browser platform. You can get any browser on any operating system with a single click. Try it out!