MT5 Now Handles 40% of Retail FX Volume — 4 More Brokers Make the Switch — 2026

MetaTrader 5 has crossed 40% of retail forex trading volume, up from 25% just two years ago. Four brokers — two FCA-regulated and two CySEC-regulated — added or fully migrated to MT5 this quarter. The shift is accelerating as brokers consolidate their platform offerings.

Why Brokers Are Moving to MT5

MT5 offers better charting tools, 21 timeframes (versus 9 on MT4), and improved backtesting through the Strategy Tester. MQL5 is objectively more powerful than MQL4, with better optimization options and multi-currency backtesting built in. The gap has widened enough that maintaining both platforms side by side is increasingly hard to justify.

Recent adopters include several high-volume brokers. IC Markets has been offering MT5 alongside cTrader for years. Exness and Pepperstone both support MT5 with full execution on their ECN pricing models. FxPro offers MT5 with access to its full instrument list.

What Traders Should Do

Most brokers still support both platforms side by side, so there’s no immediate rush to switch. But the direction of travel is clear. For new builds, MT5 is the better choice — more order types (market, limit, stop, stop-limit), a built-in economic calendar, and depth of market for forex pairs.

MT4 users still have time, but checking Expert Advisor compatibility with MT5 is worth doing now rather than waiting. For a comparison of platforms across brokers, see our broker comparison tool.