Many lists exist that provide an overview of large software companies, often called "independent software vendors" ("ISVs"), in the world. The lists differ by methodology of composition and consequently show substantial differences in both the listed companies and the ranking of those companies.

This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page. (Learn how and when to remove these template messages) This article's factual accuracy is disputed. (December 2016) This article needs additional citations for verification. (December 2016) This article may contain excessive or inappropriate references to self-published sources. (December 2016) This article needs to be updated. (May 2021)

The Forbes Global 2000 is an annual ranking of the top 2000 public companies in the world by Forbes magazine, based on a mix of four metrics: sales, profit, assets and market value. The Forbes list for software companies includes only pure play (or nearly pure play) software companies and excludes manufacturers, consumer electronics companies, conglomerates, IT consulting firms, and computer services companies even if they have large software divisions.

The top 50 companies in terms of market capitalization in the 2019 Forbes list^{[needs update]} for the "Software & Programming" industry are listed in the following table:^[1]

All values listed in the table are in billion US$.

• List of largest technology companies by revenue
• List of largest manufacturing companies by revenue
• List of largest United States–based employers globally
• List of largest employers
• Economy of the United States