Forex Platforms Between MT4 and MT5: Which Trading Software Leads the Market?

A recent cross-market platform study suggests the global shift from MetaTrader 4 to MetaTrader 5 is still uneven at regional level. While MT5 now leads in five of the six regions tracked, North America remains the only market where MT4 still holds a slight edge in web visibility.

The study covered retail FX and CFD platform visibility across 121 countries from Q4 2024 through Q1 2026. In the regional breakdown, MENA showed one of the clearest gaps in favor of MT5, followed by Africa and Europe. North America, by contrast, stayed below parity, indicating that MT4 has not yet been displaced there in the same way.

Forex platforms are diverging by region

The findings matter mainly because they reflect how forex brokers are still adapting platform strategy to local market conditions rather than moving in a single global direction.

Across most regions, MT5 has become the more visible platform, reinforcing its broader momentum in retail forex and CFD trading. At the same time, North America continues to show a different pattern, with MT4 still maintaining a stronger relative position than in other parts of the world.

Outside the MetaTrader pair, regional platform competition also remains fragmented. In Europe, Latin America, and MENA, one proprietary broker platform accounted for a particularly large share of visibility, while cTrader held the largest non-MetaQuotes share across all six regions tracked.

North America still moves more slowly on MT5

The North American result stands out because it has remained relatively stable for several quarters instead of following the stronger MT5 migration seen elsewhere. The analysis linked that slower transition to structural features of the local retail forex market, including tighter product rules and leverage restrictions. In the United States, major FX pairs are capped at 50:1 leverage for retail clients, while CFDs are not permitted for US retail traders.

That setting reduces some of the product-expansion pressure that has helped drive MT5 adoption in other regions, especially where brokers have used newer account structures and broader instrument ranges to move clients away from MT4.

The wider forex market continues shifting toward MT5

At a global level, the broader trend still points in one direction. Earlier industry reporting showed MT5 overtaking MT4 in combined MetaQuotes trading volume, first moving past it at 54.2%, then rising to 62% by Q3 2025, and reaching 65% in Q1 2026.

That means the regional divergence is happening inside a larger migration that still favors MT5 overall. For forex brokers, the picture is not simply about one platform replacing another at the same speed everywhere. It is increasingly about how migration plays out differently depending on market structure, product mix, and local regulation.

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