The answer
Because the global object had different names in different environments (window, global, self). Writing portable code that needed the global object required verbose feature detection. globalThis unifies access.
globalThis in JavaScript: Why It Exists
Why was globalThis introduced in JavaScript?
More FAQs in globalThis in JavaScript: Why It Exists
A standard property introduced in ES2020 that always refers to the global object, regardless of environment. It is window in browsers, global in Node.js, and self in Web Workers.
Yes. In ES modules, top-level this is undefined, but globalThis still refers to the global object. It is the correct way to access globals in module code.
Generally no. Polluting the global object is a bad practice that causes collisions and bugs. Use it only for library internals, polyfills, or capability detection.
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