For the first time since launched in 2004 Google’s Gmail has finally overtaken Microsoft’s Hotmail to be the top e-mail service worldwide, according to ComScore which tracks Web site traffic.

Data from October 2012 shows Gmail had 287.9 million unique worldwide visitors during the period, narrowly edging out Microsoft’s Hotmail which finished with 286.2 million unique visitors.

In third place was Yahoo, the once mighty free e-mail provider with 281.7 million unique visitor. Yahoo Mail however holds a comfortable lead in the United States with 76.7 million, compared to second-place Gmail with 69.1 million and third-place Hotmail with 35.5 million.

The data appears to end any dispute about Gmail’s dominance in the global market. Last summer, Google claimed to be the largest based on its own internal numbers but the company’s assertion wasn’t backed up by third-party data.