The Chrome Web Store has 84 categories. A quick look shows the most popular category is “Productivity” accounting for ~40k extensions and 676M installs.
Let’s break down the number of extensions in each category excluding the ~18k that are uncategorized.
| category | # of extensions |
|---|---|
| productivity | 39,765 |
| fun | 24,773 |
| photos | 21,742 |
| web_development | 12,252 |
| communication | 11,953 |
| accessibility | 9,716 |
| search_tools | 8,319 |
| shopping | 6,313 |
| games | 4,749 |
| news | 3,308 |
| education | 3,146 |
| business_tools | 2,695 |
| blogging | 1,913 |
| arcade_action | 1,882 |
| sports | 1,843 |
| lifestyle | 1,717 |
| entertainment | 1,492 |
| utilities | 1,363 |
| academic_resources | 1,149 |
| office_applications | 1,133 |
| puzzle_brain | 1,048 |
| arcade_games | 1,033 |
| action_and_adventure_games | 849 |
| puzzle_games | 738 |
| teacher_and_admin_tools | 668 |
| creative_tools | 632 |
| marketing_and_analytics | 571 |
| teacher_tools | 524 |
| accounting_and_finance | 507 |
| music_and_radio | 502 |
| board_card | 485 |
| news_reporting | 425 |
| food_and_health | 411 |
| role_playing_strategy | 408 |
| music | 384 |
| sales_and_crm | 357 |
| administration_and_management | 311 |
| educational_games | 310 |
| task_management | 299 |
| travel | 294 |
| health_fitness | 287 |
| search_and_browsing_tools | 270 |
| board_games | 246 |
| foreign_languages | 246 |
| social_networks | 242 |
| sports_game | 241 |
| strategy_games | 241 |
| card_games | 239 |
| online_documents_and_file_storage | 224 |
| blogs | 223 |
| calculators | 177 |
| online_videos | 172 |
| tv_movies | 169 |
| role_playing_games | 167 |
| test_preparation | 163 |
| family | 156 |
| virtual_worlds | 156 |
| school_administration | 144 |
| chat_and_im | 142 |
| hr_and_legal | 140 |
| calendar_and_scheduling | 139 |
| money | 129 |
| food | 124 |
| books | 119 |
| radio | 118 |
| by_artists | 118 |
| religion | 117 |
| alarms_and_clocks | 116 |
| design_essentials | 106 |
| erp_and_logistics | 103 |
| notepads | 99 |
| news_aggregators | 91 |
| phone_and_sms | 89 |
| email_and_contacts | 82 |
| bookmarks | 72 |
| dictionaries | 66 |
| newspapers | 61 |
| weather_forecasts | 54 |
| magazines | 50 |
| fashion | 48 |
| social_news | 44 |
| astrology | 42 |
| dating | 33 |
| by_google | 26 |
Taking a look at categories by installs, we see that productivity is 5x more popular than the next biggest category.
| category | installs |
|---|---|
| productivity | 676,147,676 |
| communication | 111,671,905 |
| photos | 109,103,337 |
| fun | 105,043,823 |
| web_development | 96,030,111 |
| education | 92,387,979 |
| accessibility | 83,818,353 |
| shopping | 82,272,965 |
| entertainment | 62,567,535 |
| search_tools | 56,028,934 |
| office_applications | 43,787,834 |
| teacher_and_admin_tools | 37,722,599 |
| teacher_tools | 37,253,849 |
| games | 31,956,052 |
| academic_resources | 29,329,452 |
| utilities | 18,612,225 |
| creative_tools | 16,075,901 |
| music_and_radio | 15,835,473 |
| music | 15,405,296 |
| news | 11,800,107 |
| puzzle_brain | 11,106,842 |
| online_videos | 10,683,185 |
| arcade_action | 9,458,576 |
| puzzle_games | 8,831,266 |
| sports | 8,011,173 |
| books | 7,075,610 |
| business_tools | 6,044,918 |
| arcade_games | 5,187,204 |
| foreign_languages | 4,443,957 |
| action_and_adventure_games | 4,271,372 |
| role_playing_strategy | 3,477,493 |
| accounting_and_finance | 3,399,186 |
| board_card | 3,329,450 |
| lifestyle | 3,166,890 |
| tv_movies | 3,121,885 |
| search_and_browsing_tools | 2,863,272 |
| family | 2,823,010 |
| task_management | 2,812,489 |
| by_artists | 2,799,974 |
| calculators | 2,630,775 |
| news_reporting | 2,452,372 |
| chat_and_im | 2,427,633 |
| social_networks | 2,398,029 |
| educational_games | 2,275,576 |
| sports_game | 2,257,231 |
| blogging | 2,254,597 |
| news_aggregators | 2,247,684 |
| online_documents_and_file_storage | 2,224,125 |
| strategy_games | 2,031,811 |
| card_games | 1,927,321 |
| notepads | 1,917,882 |
| weather_forecasts | 1,658,244 |
| role_playing_games | 1,445,682 |
| board_games | 1,402,129 |
| alarms_and_clocks | 1,284,219 |
| design_essentials | 1,158,893 |
| virtual_worlds | 1,061,502 |
| by_google | 934,725 |
| email_and_contacts | 887,331 |
| money | 816,862 |
| food_and_health | 667,544 |
| phone_and_sms | 614,531 |
| health_fitness | 586,593 |
| bookmarks | 529,347 |
| calendar_and_scheduling | 525,551 |
| marketing_and_analytics | 516,461 |
| dictionaries | 501,876 |
| school_administration | 468,750 |
| radio | 430,177 |
| travel | 412,941 |
| sales_and_crm | 378,473 |
| religion | 349,069 |
| test_preparation | 345,080 |
| hr_and_legal | 163,105 |
| newspapers | 122,894 |
| administration_and_management | 119,053 |
| food | 80,951 |
| erp_and_logistics | 75,896 |
| blogs | 66,189 |
| astrology | 44,267 |
| social_news | 41,701 |
| dating | 31,096 |
| magazines | 15,605 |
| fashion | 3,155 |
Power laws play heavily here and a majority of installs are attributed to the most popular extension in each category. The following table show the most popular extension in each category. Some of these category winners lead multiple categories while others appear tied only because the Chrome Web Store does not report install counts beyond 10M installs for any given extension. WeVideo dominates the 'online_video' category with ~60% of the category's install base, while Movistar+ leads the 'fun' category with only a 1.8% share.
| category | extension | installs |
|---|---|---|
| productivity | AdBlock | 10M+ |
| productivity | Adblock Plus - free ad blocker | 10M+ |
| productivity | Adobe Acrobat | 10M+ |
| productivity | G Suite Training | 10M+ |
| productivity | Google Translate | 10M+ |
| productivity | Grammarly for Chrome | 10M+ |
| productivity | LastPass: Free Password Manager | 10M+ |
| productivity | Pinterest Save button | 10M+ |
| productivity | Tampermonkey | 10M+ |
| productivity | uBlock Origin | 10M+ |
| productivity, web_development | Text | 10M+ |
| shopping | Avast SafePrice | 10M+ |
| shopping | Honey | 10M+ |
| entertainment, photos | Google Photos | 10M+ |
| accessibility | Read&Write for Google Chrome™ | 10M+ |
| communication | Cisco Webex Extension | 10M+ |
| communication | Skype | 10M+ |
| education, teacher_tools, teacher_and_admin_tools | Google Classroom | 10M+ |
| online_videos | WeVideo - Video Editor and Maker | 6,365,591 |
| office_applications | Google Drawings | 6,037,852 |
| search_tools | Search Encrypt | 4,368,672 |
| music, music_and_radio | Google Play | 4,358,041 |
| books | Kindle Cloud Reader | 3,908,443 |
| academic_resources | Desmos Graphing Calculator | 3,806,791 |
| utilities | ScanQR | 2,563,113 |
| foreign_languages | Duolingo on the Web | 2,416,798 |
| puzzle_brain, puzzle_games, games | Entanglement Web App | 2,276,047 |
| fun | Player para ver Movistar+ | 1,920,870 |
| creative_tools | MindMeister | 1,674,734 |
| family | DOGOnews | 1,383,257 |
| social_networks | TweetDeck by Twitter | 1,381,555 |
| accounting_and_finance, business_tools | Click&Clean App | 1,323,158 |
| tv_movies | TV | 1,312,229 |
| search_and_browsing_tools | mydlink services plugin | 1,093,352 |
| news, news_reporting, news_aggregators | Google News | 917,371 |
| notepads | Sticky Notes | 863,619 |
| weather_forecasts | Full Screen Weather | 773,916 |
| blogging | Google Voice (by Google) | 701,640 |
| calculators | Calculator | 689,957 |
| card_games, board_card | Solitaire | 618,533 |
| design_essentials | Chrome Apps & Extensions Developer Tool | 609,556 |
| arcade_action, arcade_games | Canvas Rider | 585,230 |
| chat_and_im | WhatsChrome | 555,504 |
| educational_games | Typing Test - KeyHero | 550,270 |
| task_management | Wunderlist - To-do and Task list | 524,525 |
| money, lifestyle | Google Finance | 493,632 |
| action_and_adventure_games | Free Rider HD | 472,382 |
| alarms_and_clocks | Timer | 436,182 |
| role_playing_games, role_playing_strategy | グランブルーファンタジー[ChromeApps版] | 397,469 |
| sports_game | WGT Golf Challenge | 360,595 |
| strategy_games | Command & Conquer Tiberium Alliances | 358,288 |
| sports | Baseball Wallpaper HD - MLB New Tab | 301,355 |
| by_artists | Cath Kidston | 280,015 |
| phone_and_sms | mysms - SMS from Computer | 265,928 |
| online_documents_and_file_storage | Network File Share for Chrome OS | 263,209 |
| email_and_contacts | Google Groups | 231,937 |
| dictionaries | Dictionary | 209,591 |
| board_games | Dominoes | 186,887 |
| religion | Bible | 185,440 |
| school_administration | My Study Life | 180,459 |
| virtual_worlds | Stardoll | 177,921 |
| by_google | Brushed | 174,083 |
| calendar_and_scheduling | Calendar Clock | 165,428 |
| food_and_health, health_fitness | Personal Trainer | 138,420 |
| bookmarks | New Tab Page by Speed Dial Team | 127,151 |
| marketing_and_analytics | vidIQ for Chrome | 108,316 |
| travel | Booking.com | 96,992 |
| test_preparation | ProConnect | 76,072 |
| hr_and_legal | Resume (CV) Maker | 75,405 |
| radio | Mixcloud | 66,962 |
| newspapers | USA TODAY | 66,033 |
| sales_and_crm | Zoho CRM | 63,065 |
| administration_and_management | TeamGantt Project Management | 48,552 |
| erp_and_logistics | W2MO: Logistics Design, Optimization, 3D | 37,462 |
| food | Simply Recipes | 28,735 |
| astrology | What do your dreams mean | 17,808 |
| dating | Sender.Services | 15,090 |
| blogs | Roblox News | 12,982 |
| social_news | 10,057 | |
| magazines | DER SPIEGEL | 4,360 |
| fashion | NEW 2014 Virtual Hairstyle Gallery | 1,854 |
Of the ~190k extensions, we find that some extension authors are more prolific than others. Google itself authors 155 extensions accounting for ~133M installs. The top 10 Google extensions are:
| name | installs |
|---|---|
| 10M+ | |
| 10M+ | |
| 10M+ | |
| 10M+ | |
| 8,893,309 | |
| 8,543,463 | |
| 7,691,324 | |
| 6,690,616 | |
| 6,037,852 | |
| 5,330,714 |
Google, however, is not the most prolific author of extensions. Chrome HD Themes has published over 6,000 extensions. The top 5 most prolific extension authors appear to be theme / wallpaper publishers.
| name | # of extensions |
|---|---|
| Chrome HD Themes | 6,128 |
| Lovely Tab | 1,343 |
| Takato Knights | 1,181 |
| NEWTAB WALLPAPERS THEMES | 1,006 |
| NIFTY NEW TAB | 979 |
Finally, investigating the author with the most installs, we find that FreeAddon has accumulated ~72M installs across 618 published extensions.
Users can rate Chrome extensions from 1 to 5 stars. 70,547 extensions have a 0 rating indicating they have not been rated. 2,663 extensions have the lowest possible rating of 1 while 41,141 (~21%) extensions have a perfect rating of 5.
Unrated extensions have an install base of ~18M while extensions with perfect ratings have an install base of ~58M. Finally, ~55%* of the total extension install base goes to extensions with a rating between 4 and 5 stars.
* We can only derive a lower bound total extension install base of 1,561,796,203 (1.56B) because Google does not report accurate figures for extensions with over 10M installs. 19 such extensions exists as of 9/12/19.
Just for fun, let’s take a look at some of the metrics behind extension names. 11-character names are the most popular with a sharp drop off after 45 characters (the character limit).
Not all extensions seem to respect the 45-character limit. Of the 514 extensions that seem exempt from it, most are add-ons for Google Docs, Sheets, Forms, etc… As such, Google appears to add “ - Google Docs add-on” to their names. However, others seem to elude the 45 character limit by using dashes, pipes, commas or other special characters. For example:
| name | # characters |
|---|---|
| 49 | |
| 51 | |
| 48 | |
| 52 |
There are 20,408 extensions that share a name with another extension. Highlights include 22 extensions called Hello World, 21 more called Hello World!, 18 called 2048, and 29 called New Tab. Here are the top 3, though:
| name | # of extensions |
|---|---|
| ThemeBeta.com | 137 |
| Reptile | 79 |
| Screen Capturing | 77 |
Reptile? Yes, there are 79 individual extensions called Reptile published by the same author, Atavi.com, each being a browser theme with a different background image. The sum total install base is 721 with 374 of those users preferring .
“Screen Capturing” is a different story with a diverse set of authors all publishing under the same name. The sum total install base is 45,300 with the top extension making up nearly all of those installs (44,542 installs).
We broke down extension names into lexemes to explore the most used lexemes and the prevalence of certain terms we find interesting. The top 5 most popular lexemes appear to all relate to theming Chrome. They are:
| lexeme | # of extensions |
|---|---|
| new | 25,137 |
| tab | 23,703 |
| wallpapers | 19,628 |
| hd | 19,367 |
| theme | 18,391 |
Additionally, we found that 1,586 extensions include every top 5 lexeme in their name. They represent a sum total install base of 1,767,944.
For threat intelligence, we’re interested in exploring the details of a number of relevant lexemes. Some of those are listed here:
| lexeme | # of extensions | installs |
|---|---|---|
| vpn | 132 | 32,611,139 |
| adblock | 68 | 28,526,932+ |
| password | 290 | 23,155,172+ |
| search | 2,361 | 22,847,412 |
| security | 92 | 20,277,902+ |
| ublock | 8 | 12,311,322+ |
| tracking | 154 | 2,809,981 |
| roblox | 106 | 2,555,684 |
| bitcoin | 177 | 562,471 |
| cookies | 66 | 521,332 |
| cryptocurrency | 49 | 24,621 |
In part 3, we’re really going to get down to business and talk about permissions and content security. We are a security startup after all. This will be very revealing. Even we were surprised when we first started digging into this data.
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