Brave announced today that its flagship web browser surpassed over 50 million monthly active users by the end of 2021, hitting its publicly stated usage goal.

“Passing 50 million users is a tremendous milestone for our company,” Brave CEO and co-founder Brenden Eich said. “It is also a powerful confirmation of the global movement underway led by users seeking alternatives to the surveillance economy. “We’ve spent a successful year expanding our product range and our ecosystem, engaging with partners who share our vision for a Web free from Big Tech’s shackles. We have seen an incredible response among our users, creators, and community. We aim to double this growth again in 2022 and engage with even more users who seek a privacy-conscious way to browse the Web that rewards them instead of punishes them with tracking, and helps them directly support creators.”

Brave made several major updates over the past year that contributed to this growth, including the launches of Brave Search (the first search/browser alternative to Big Tech that’s built on top of an independent index), Brave Talk (a privacy-preserving video conferencing solution), and many moves to deepen its ties with crypto (incl. Brave Wallet, partnerships with Solana and Gemini, and more), a Brave representative told me.

The firm also provided the following key stats from 2021:

– 2.3 billion queries annualized on Brave Search. This went from 0 to 190 million queries a month in less than 6 months, from public access in late June to December 2021.

– 1.3 million Verified Creators, up 30 percent this year across YouTube, Twitter, Twitch, and more.

– Brave’s ad platform has greatly expanded as revenue has grown 4x over the past 12 months. Brave Ads campaigns were supported in nearly 200 countries with over 7.5 billion ad confirmation events to date.

– Over 8 million users are now earning BAT via Brave Rewards.

– The most mobile growth of any browser in 2021 with over 10M downloads.

You can learn more from the Brave website.

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