Firefox 4 clocks up 7.1 million downloads within first 24 hours

We noted Firefox 3's spectacular eight million downloads in a day when discussing the recent launch ofIE9, and that mark shall live on as a record for another day. Firefox 4 looks to have a had a thoroughly successful debut, going past the five million milestone within the first 24 hours of its release, but it hasn't quite been able to overshadow its predecessor. And before you go comparing its numbers to the latest Internet Explorer, do be cognizant that FF4 released on a wider set of platforms, rendering direct stat comparisons a little dicey. That's not stopping StatCounter, however, who notes that the latest Firefox already has a 1.95 percent share of the browser market, almost exactly double what IE9 can claim so far. Better get working on that XP compatibility, eh Microsoft?

Update: Mozilla CEO Gary Kovacs has the final stats for the first 24 hours and it's actually even higher than we thought: 7.1 million downloads around the globe. That's in addition to three million users already running the release candidate for Firefox 4, which turned into the final release. Good work!