Intel’s once-unquestioned dominance in the gaming PC market seems to be over. The latest Steam Hardware Survey for December 2025 paints a worrying picture for the company, confirming a trend that’s been building for years — gamers are steadily moving to AMD.
According to data from Valve’s platform, the share of Intel processors among Steam users has fallen to 55.58%. Although Intel technically remains the leader, the gap has shrunk drastically as AMD climbs to 44.42%. To put this into perspective, five years ago Intel ruled with an overwhelming 81% share compared to AMD’s modest 19%.
Intel’s Decline Fueled by Instability and Disappointing Launches
Intel’s drop of more than 25 percentage points in just five years isn’t by chance. The company has faced a perfect storm of technical and reputational problems. Its 14th Gen Raptor Lake processors were hit by stability issues, with voltage spikes causing game crashes and hardware degradation. This badly damaged consumer confidence. BIOS and microcode updates followed — but for many, they arrived too late.
The recent Arrow Lake architecture launch also failed to turn things around. Reviews show that gaming performance has, in some cases, worsened compared to previous generations. As a result, many enthusiasts have chosen not to upgrade.
While Intel stumbled, AMD capitalized on the moment with its 3D V-Cache technology, which delivers significant gaming performance boosts. This smart move has paid off. On Amazon’s best-seller list, not a single Intel CPU appears in the top 10. Instead, models like the Ryzen 7 9800X3D and even the older Ryzen 7 5800X dominate sales.
Intel’s next major hope now rests on its Nova Lake architecture, expected to arrive in the near future. However, the current market has spoken loud and clear — for now, AMD has all the momentum, and Intel’s long reign in gaming may finally be at an end.
