Top pure-play software and programming companies globally 2017-2024, by sales

Microsoft was the largest software and programming company worldwide by net sales from 2017 to 2024. In the most recent year, Microsoft’s sales revenue reached 237 billion U.S. dollars. Oracle and Salesforce ranked in distant second and third places, earning 53 and 35 billion U.S. dollars, respectively. 

Enterprise Software Industry

In 2023, the IT spending on enterprise software amounted to 913 billion U.S. dollars worldwide. The enterprise software market is the fastest-growing sector in the IT industry, in comparison to other segments such as IT services and data center systems. The market includes a wide range of applications such as human resource management (HRM), enterprise resource planning (ERP), customer relationship management (CRM), office suites, etc. However, due to the negative economic impact of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, the market witnessed a decline in 2020 but recovered quickly in 2022.

Microsoft Corporation

Founded in 1975 by Bill Gates and Paul Allen, Microsoft has grown into one of the most successful tech firms in the world and has experienced years of continued success. Microsoft’s core business is its productivity and business process segment, from which the company generated over 245 billion U.S. dollars in its 2022 financial year. Intelligence cloud, another highly prolific segment, brought in a further 105 billion U.S. dollars in that year.