Microsoft’s Internet Explorer 9 - or IE9 as it's know to it’s mates - has, it seems, lots of new friends. Microsoft has just announced that even though people have been playing with the beta for little over a year – the new browser has been downloaded over 2.35 million times in the first 24 hours.

“Internet Explorer 9 has now been downloaded 2.35 million times in the first 24 hours since its Monday night release. That is over 27 downloads every second, or over 240 downloads every 9 seconds. Wow,” claims Microsoft on one of its many blogs.

Microsoft doesn't however say whether those downloads are just the beta crowd upgrading, IE8 users finally ditching their browser or people switching from other browsers like Firefox or Chrome. 

“We want to thank everyone around the world for downloading IE9 and the enthusiastic reception. 2.3 million downloads in 24 hours is over double the 1 million downloads we saw of the IE9 Beta and four times that of the IE9 RC over the same time period.”

It’s good news for Microsoft who’ve been the brunt of browser jokes for the last couple of years – especially with IE8.

Could Microsoft finally banish IE6 altogether now? Let’s hope so. 

- Check out our Internet Explorer 9 review

Have you downloaded the new Microsoft browser? Let us know what you think in the comments below: