AMD CPUs achieve 40% market share on Steam for the first time
AMD achieves record high CPU market share in this month’s Steam Hardware Survey
Intel’s dominance within the PC gaming market appears to be coming to an end. Valve has released the results of its July 2025 Steam Hardware survey, confirming that AMD CPUs are now used by over 40% of Steam’s user base. While Intel CPUs are still used by most Steam users, AMD’s recent growth places them on a path that could lead to Intel being dethroned.
Tom’s Hardware, when reporting on this, claimed that Intel CPUs were used by 77% of Steam users in 2020. Now, Intel CPUs are used by less than 60% of Steam users. If this trend continues, AMD could have a larger market share in just a few years.
AMD’s recent growth implies that AMD CPUs are outselling their Intel counterparts, at least within the gaming PC market. It’s worth noting that Steam’s hardware survey accounts for all Steam users, not just newly built PCs. AMD’s rising market share implies that PC gamers are choosing AMD over Intel.
(CPU Usage on Steam (AMD VS Intel) – via Steam Hardware Survey)
Intel’s market share could decrease rapidly if it can’t fix its gaming problems
Intel’s current problems within the PC gaming market are due to the company’s lacklustre Arrow Lake CPU lineup. Today’s Intel Arrow Lake CPUs can often be bested by their last-generation Raptor Lake CPUs. This gives gamers no incentive to buy new Intel CPUs for their gaming PCs. In contrast, AMD delivered significant performance gains with its Ryzen 7 9800X3D gaming CPU, securing performance leadership for AMD (at least in the gaming market).
Intel’s high CPU share on Steam comes from its legacy users. Not all PC gamers are frequent upgraders. This is why it can take a long time for market share to change on Steam’s hardware survey. If current trends continue, more Intel-based PCs will be retired and more AMD-powered PCs will be built to replace them. If Intel cannot reassert itself within the PC gaming market, AMD will be poised to take Intel’s mantle as Steam’s most-used CPU provider.
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