Opera 11 gets 6.7 million day one downloads

Katie Gatto · December 17, 2010 · Short URL: https://vator.tv/n/14f8

An almost 200% increase in new downloads compared to last year; stole 53% of new users from Firefox

All that most companies want for Christmas is a loyal user base, and some growth wouldn't hurt either. It looks like Oslo, Norway-based Opera got its wish a little early. On Thursday, the company announced that in the first day alone, there were 6.7 million downloads of the new version of its browser. This is a significant change when compared to the new version they launched about this time last year. When Opera 10.10 came out in 2009 it saw an average of 1.7 million downloads per day, in the first week, which makes this years first day total just shy of four times more downloads then last years model.

The new version, dubbed Opera 11, comes with a bevy of new features including tab stacking, virtual mouse gestures, enhanced security and a set of newly compatible extensions. The size of the browser is also significantly smaller, with a file size 30% smaller then the previous version of the browser, Opera 10.60.

So, where did the downloads come from? Well 1.1 millions came from download partners around the globe. Others came from the auto-updater, though the company was quick to state in the blog posting that not every user was sent the new version via the auto-updater in the first day. Some people were first time users. Of those first time users 53% were coming off of Firefox, and 43% were using Internet Explorer.

Opera, which has been around since 1994, is the browser of choice for Nintendo products, with its browser as the native, and only, choice on both the Nintendo DSi and the Wii gaming consoles, which most likely accounts for a significant portion of the 100 million users that use the browser each month.

Opera also runs on Windows, Mac and Linux based PCs, as well as having a mobile phone version of the browser, called Opera Mobile, and Opera Mini, which is used on non-phone mobile devices . They also operate Opera Devices SDK, which is a cross-platform development environment.