Steam data shows PC gamers are choosing AMD CPUs over Intel

Valve has published the Steam Hardware & Software Survey results for September 2025, and we've already reviewed the latest developments in the discrete GPU space. Check out our analysis here for a look at how NVIDIA's GeForce RTX 50 Series, led by the GeForce RTX 5070, is proving to be the most popular brand-new GPU option for PC gamers in 2025.

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Yes, Radeon RX is still a distant second to GeForce RTX, even after receiving strong reviews and community sentiment surrounding RDNA 4 cards, such as the Radeon RX 9070 XT and the new mainstream Radeon RX 9060 XT. However, if you take a look at the CPU side of the latest Steam Hardware & Software Survey results, AMD is rapidly gaining ground and taking market share directly from Intel with its 8-core and 16-core Ryzen lineup.

According to the data, Intel CPUs still make up the majority of systems jumping onto Steam, with a 57.68% share compared to AMD's 42.32%. However, examining the trend over the last five months of Steam data, AMD's market share has increased by over 2%, while Intel's has decreased by the same amount.

A single percent or so might not sound like a lot, but with well over 132 million monthly active users (a figure that dates back to 2020), that 2% equates to Intel losing over one million PC gamers to AMD and Ryzen. If this trend continues over the course of the following year, leading into the launch of AMD's next generation of Zen 6-powered desktop processors, we could be looking at an even 50/50 split.

Of course, there's still time for Intel to respond with its upcoming 'Panther Lake' generation, but time will tell if it offers PC gamers a compelling alternative to Ryzen processors like the popular Ryzen 7 9800X3D. Examining Steam's data for CPU cores, 8-core Ryzen CPUs, such as the 9800X3D, 7800X3D, and 9700X, are showing the most significant growth, which is reflected on retail platforms like Newegg.