AMD gaming CPUs are surging in popularity while Intel slowly sinks, report shows

The percentage of gamers with AMD Ryzen gaming CPUs has just reached a new high, and while Intel is still the market leader, there's clear evidence that its star is continuing to fade. This latest report shows AMD's share of the consumer market rising to 32.2%, which is significantly higher than the 9.1% share it held nearly a decade ago.

For those with a vested interest in gaming hardware, this isn't a big surprise. Our best gaming CPU guide has been dominated by AMD chips in recent years, thanks to the overwhelming success of its 3D V-cache, which offers superior gaming performance that Intel hasn't been able to match to date.

This latest report shows that gamers are, slowly but surely, voting with their wallets. The data comes from Mercury Research and was compiled by AMD and Tom's Hardware in this report. It shows AMD's share of the desktop CPU market steadily growing over the past decade, reaching a new high in this most recent quarter.

Intel continues to be the market leader, with a market share of 67.8% in Q2 2025, but it's dropping back. Back in Q3 2016, the first data value shared in Mercury Research's data, Intel's market share was 90.9%, while just last year, in Q2 2024, it held a 77% share of the market, showing that its market share is now shrinking more rapidly. The clear sign for Intel, despite its efforts, is that its previous dominance over the PC market is slipping away, a trend we've seen backed up in a recent Steam hardware survey, too.

Where does this leave gamers? Gaming CPUs such as the AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D are now the clear choice for gaming, thanks to the additional 64MB L3 cache allowance. Intel simply hasn't been able to provide a good enough answer to the performance offered by AMD's 3D V-cache technology. Its most recent desktop CPU lineup, Intel Arrow Lake, also offered slower performance than its previous Raptor Lake chips, as our Intel Core Ultra 7 265K review shows.

While recent Intel gaming CPU rumors point to newer, better CPUs with huge L3 caches on the horizon, only time will tell if these are capable enough to beat AMD and good enough for Intel to stem some of its market share bleeding. If it can't find a solution, AMD could well overtake it on desktop PCs within a few years.

Check out our AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D review next if you're curious to see why AMD continues to be such a powerhouse in gaming PCs. Meanwhile, our best gaming motherboard guide will help you to pick out a board for your next rig if you're thinking about upgrading your CPU.

If you've got some firm opinions to share about why Intel is on such a losing streak right now, our Discord server is a great place to share them with fellow readers.