The European Union’s Digital Markets Act (DMA) opened the floodgates for alternative web browsers earlier this year, but regulatory nudges only get your foot in the door. If the product lacks substance, users inevitably bounce right back to what they know. But for Opera, the latest Q2 2026 growth figures prove the company isn’t just getting people to try its Android and iOS browsers. It is actually giving them reasons to stay.

While it’s easy to attribute this momentum entirely to the new iOS browser-choice screen, that only tells half the story. The real driver here is feature density. Opera announced a massive 66% year-over-year growth in combined monthly active users (MAUs) in the UK, alongside a solid 40% jump in the US. Breaking those numbers down, the UK saw a 93% spike on iOS and a 50% increase on Android. Over in the US, Opera One for iOS climbed by 50%, while Android grew by 30%.

Opera’s growth goes beyond the Digital Markets Act

Following the European Union’s Digital Markets Act (DMA), Apple introduced browser choice screens on iPhones across Europe, making it much easier for users to select alternatives during device setup. While many browser makers benefited from the increased visibility, Opera says long-term retention depends on offering features users actually want and not simply appearing as an option.

According to Jørgen Arnesen, Opera’s Executive Vice President of Mobile, the company’s recent momentum in the US and UK reinforces that idea.

“Our growth comes from people purposefully choosing us. What we’re seeing now is that growth is spreading to the US and the UK. People are finding their way to us on their own, which tells us the product is doing the work.”

I constantly monitor mobile OS lifecycles and app updates, and a browser doesn’t pull those kinds of retention numbers purely off a ballot screen. People are actively seeking out alternatives that offer more out of the box without requiring a dozen third-party extensions. Opera is capitalizing on this by packing in the exact utilities heavy web users want. Users are staying for the native ad blocker, the completely free and unlimited VPN without data caps, and the intuitive Tab Islands that clean up digital clutter.

Opera is also moving incredibly fast with ecosystem integration and proactive safety. Just last week, we highlighted how the latest Opera One for iOS update introduced seamless two-way sync, finally allowing users to mirror tabs, bookmarks, and passwords between their iPhone and desktop effortlessly.

They certainly haven’t stopped there. The development team has aggressively beefed up browser security, rolling out protective measures like Paste Protection to guard against clipboard hijacking. They have also remained highly responsive to community bug reports, quickly patching a critical backdoor flaw found in GX Mods earlier this month. Even the customization crowd is being kept happy with ongoing aesthetic drops like the highly anticipated Forsaken skin for Opera GX slated for August.

Winning over football fans on Android

Perhaps the most telling sign that Opera understands its audience is how they approached the milestone 100th version of Opera for Android. Ahead of the 2026 World Cup tournament in the US, Mexico, and Canada, the team baked a dedicated football hub right into the start page.

Being a massive football fan who closely follows local and European top flights, I know firsthand that juggling multiple apps just to check live scores, player stats, and goal alerts gets frustrating quickly. By integrating that experience directly into the browser, Opera noted a 70% increase in visitors to their scores section compared to normal Premier League season traffic. Users aren’t just glancing at numbers and leaving; they are staying within the app for deep commentary and historical match data.

It is a simple, effective philosophy: build the solutions directly into the browser instead of forcing users to download yet another app. That is exactly why Opera’s mobile growth is accelerating across major markets, and why default platform browsers need to start paying serious attention.

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