new FM intelligence analysiswhich covers retail FX/CFD trading platform visibility across 121 countries from Q4 2024 through Q1 2026, finds that the global shift from MetaTrader 4 to MetaTrader 5 is moving at six different speeds by region. North America stands out as the only region where MT4 continues to outpace MT5 in web visibility.
All other regions have flipped to MT5 dominance, with the MENA region showing a MT5 to MT4 ratio of 3.38, Africa at 2.70, and Europe at 1.78. North America is at 0.87, the same range it has occupied for six consecutive quarters.
Six regions, six platform identities
FM Intelligence tracks nine platforms in six regions and finds that no one drives in more than three. xStation, the platform for Polish broker XTBa leader in Europe, Latin America, and the Middle East and North Africa region. MT5 is a leader in the Asia Pacific and Africa region. MT4 only drives in North America.
This fragmentation contrasts with the global picture published by FM Intelligence earlier this year MT5 for the first time surpassed MT4 in terms of trading volume 54.2% of MetaQuotes combined volumes. By the third quarter of 2025, MT5 share expands to 62%The quarterly report for the first quarter of 2026 puts the figure at 65%.
Web vision data is converging with the volumetric image at the global level. It varies sharply regionally, especially in North America, where MetaQuotes’ combined share of platform traffic actually rose 2.8 percentage points over the past year while declining in four of the other five regions.
Why is North America lagging behind?
The North American ratio moved within a range of 0.81 to 0.95 across six quarters, peaking at 0.95 in the second quarter of 2025 before stabilizing at 0.87 in the first quarter of 2026. The FM Intelligence information points to two structural factors that may help explain the lag.
The first is the regulatory environment. Leverage caps and product restrictions imposed by the National Futures Association have restricted new account product launches that have driven MT5 adoption in other regions, with US retail clients restricted to 50:1 on major forex pairs and CFDs excluded altogether.
The second is that MetaQuotes’ combined share has continued to grow in North America while shrinking elsewhere, which the analysis treats as a sign of a migration slowdown rather than a structural ceiling.
Europe is an xStation story, not a platform story
In contrast, xStation accounted for 92% of European platform traffic in Q1 2026, with 83% of xStation’s total worldwide visibility originating from European countries. Germany alone contributed 4 million visits to xStation during the quarter, equivalent to 28% of the platform’s global traffic from a single country.
The geographic distribution of xStation traffic almost perfectly mirrors the XTB broker’s footprint, according to FM Intelligence calculations, with the same 83% European focus on both the platform and broker side.
Among non-MetaQuotes platforms, non-xStation platforms, com. cTrader The largest regional share was recorded in every region tracked, ranging from 2% in Europe to 7.5% in Asia Pacific.
The full analysis, including regional concentration data and modeling of scenarios when the MT5/MT4 ratio in North America could exceed 1.0, is available at: FM Intelligence Data Lab.
The above numbers measure web visibility for platform branded domains and product pages across 121 countries from Q4 2024 through Q1 2026. They are measurements of FM information traffic and not reported trading volumes.
new FM intelligence analysiswhich covers retail FX/CFD trading platform visibility across 121 countries from Q4 2024 through Q1 2026, finds that the global shift from MetaTrader 4 to MetaTrader 5 is moving at six different speeds by region. North America stands out as the only region where MT4 continues to outpace MT5 in web visibility.
All other regions have flipped to MT5 dominance, with the MENA region showing a MT5 to MT4 ratio of 3.38, Africa at 2.70, and Europe at 1.78. North America is at 0.87, the same range it has occupied for six consecutive quarters.
Six regions, six platform identities
FM Intelligence tracks nine platforms in six regions and finds that no one drives in more than three. xStation, the platform for Polish broker XTBa leader in Europe, Latin America, and the Middle East and North Africa region. MT5 is a leader in the Asia Pacific and Africa region. MT4 only drives in North America.
This fragmentation contrasts with the global picture published by FM Intelligence earlier this year MT5 for the first time surpassed MT4 in terms of trading volume 54.2% of MetaQuotes combined volumes. By the third quarter of 2025, MT5 share expands to 62%The quarterly report for the first quarter of 2026 puts the figure at 65%.
Web vision data is converging with the volumetric image at the global level. It varies sharply regionally, especially in North America, where MetaQuotes’ combined share of platform traffic actually rose 2.8 percentage points over the past year while declining in four of the other five regions.
Why is North America lagging behind?
The North American ratio moved within a range of 0.81 to 0.95 across six quarters, peaking at 0.95 in the second quarter of 2025 before stabilizing at 0.87 in the first quarter of 2026. The FM Intelligence information points to two structural factors that may help explain the lag.
The first is the regulatory environment. Leverage caps and product restrictions imposed by the National Futures Association have restricted new account product launches that have driven MT5 adoption in other regions, with US retail clients restricted to 50:1 on major forex pairs and CFDs excluded altogether.
The second is that MetaQuotes’ combined share has continued to grow in North America while shrinking elsewhere, which the analysis treats as a sign of a migration slowdown rather than a structural ceiling.
Europe is an xStation story, not a platform story
In contrast, xStation accounted for 92% of European platform traffic in Q1 2026, with 83% of xStation’s total worldwide visibility originating from European countries. Germany alone contributed 4 million visits to xStation during the quarter, equivalent to 28% of the platform’s global traffic from a single country.
The geographic distribution of xStation traffic almost perfectly mirrors the XTB broker’s footprint, according to FM Intelligence calculations, with the same 83% European focus on both the platform and broker side.
Among non-MetaQuotes platforms, non-xStation platforms, com. cTrader The largest regional share was recorded in every region tracked, ranging from 2% in Europe to 7.5% in Asia Pacific.
The full analysis, including regional concentration data and modeling of scenarios when the MT5/MT4 ratio in North America could exceed 1.0, is available at: FM Intelligence Data Lab.
The above numbers measure web visibility for platform branded domains and product pages across 121 countries from Q4 2024 through Q1 2026. They are measurements of FM information traffic and not reported trading volumes.
