Intel clawed back CPU market share from AMD in the Steam Hardware survey for the first time in months — PC component crisis could be pushing builders to value-for-money builds

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The PC DIY meta has changed from future-proofing to building something capable and good value for gaming today.

Intel processors
(Image credit: Future)

After months of consistent decline, Intel’s consumer CPUs have enjoyed a small but significant spell of market share growth, at least according to the latest Steam Hardware Survey (January 2026 data). The latest statistics raise a couple of key questions. Firstly, could this mark the beginning of an Intel comeback? Secondly, why might Intel platforms be more attractive in the current PC market?

(Image credit: Future)

An Intel comeback?

Though Intel has broken its downtrend in this latest set of survey statistics, it isn’t possible to say whether this is truly a change in fortunes. As Aristotle (probably) said, “one swallow does not a spring make.” So, one result doesn’t provide a lot of certainty for extrapolations.

We’d need three months of data to confirm a popularity plateau, resistance point, or reversal of fortunes for Intel in the gaming CPU market. That means we are still a long way off the establishment of a reliable trend.

Why might Intel gain market share in 2026?

If we assume that Intel is once again going to consistently grow its consumer CPU market share, it is interesting to look at its current strengths and recent platform announcements.

Ahead of the RAMpocalypse, PC DIY forums and social media generally seemed to steer builders toward AM5 plus DDR5 for creating a potent ‘future-proof’ PC system. After several months of exploding RAM pricing, this particular path to PC Nirvana has lost its glossy shine.

In the PC DIY space, pricing and availability may have worked in Intel’s favor over recent months. The iconic PC chipmaker’s 13th and 14th-generation processors appear to have remained in stock, often discounted. They can be used with cheaper DDR4 RAM (that upgraders may already have), with plentiful well-priced DDR4 motherboards (e.g. B760) still at retailers. Moreover, these remain decent platforms for most gamers, who will typically be performance-limited by their GPU choice. We've also seen some fairly drastic and generous discounts on Intel's current generation processors, with Core Ultra 200 series chips bundled with motherboards, coolers, popular games, or even just slashed in price in the second half of 2025.

B760 DDR4 motherboard

Cheap Intel DDR4 motherboards (Image credit: Aorus)

A cultural shift from future-proofing to buying the best value $/FPS system today seems to have taken hold in Q4 2025 and persists to this day.

At CES 2026, we also noticed more positives for Intel. Its next-gen Panther Lake chips for laptops were far more warmly welcomed than AMD’s Ryzen AI 400 series refresh. This won’t have started to trickle through to Steam survey results, of course, but Intel traditionally has stronger laptop-maker support, and Panther Lake should ensure that isn’t eroded in 2026.

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Mark Tyson
Mark Tyson
News Editor
7 Comments Comment from the forums
  • anoldnewb
    Looking at the frequency data, Intel’s only gains come at in the 2 to 2.7 Ghz range and they lose share at higher frequencies. Does this reflect laptop vs desktop systems" If so, that would argue against any effect in the PC DIY space.
    Reply
  • Gururu
    This is such a poor survey as it lacks too many details to conclude anything about new systems. The GPU portion barely provides any details about AMD or Intel products.
    Reply
  • Neilbob
    Gururu said:
    This is such a poor survey as it lacks too many details to conclude anything about new systems. The GPU portion barely provides any details about AMD or Intel products.
    Yes, this.

    These articles continually make statements and conclusions that seem to assume the survey represents majority new systems, when it is completely clear that it does not. The very same CPU summary we are looking at here also shows, about a year ago, that Intel systems went from 62.6% to 68.8% share within a single month - a far more significant jump. However the very next month they drop right back down to 61.7%.

    This survey shows NOTHING but the fact that, in the short-term, the recipients polled is often highly variable and cannot be used as empirical evidence.
    Reply
  • JamesJones44
    I don't know how much lag there is in this data, but people like we with an old Intel 8700 logged into my gaming rig for the first time last year over the holiday break. I wonder how much of this is people like that.
    Reply
  • TerryLaze
    Neilbob said:
    and cannot be used as empirical evidence.
    Can any statistic be?
    Aren't they completely different concepts?
    Reply
  • artk2219
    TerryLaze said:
    Can any statistic be?
    Aren't they completely different concepts?
    You are correct, statistics are corollary at best, not causative or empirical. That said, if Steam didn't keep their survey in a black box we may be able to gain more useful data out of it.

    I have a hard time believe there are that many more LGA 1700 users in the wild, but its not impossible that there has definitely been an uptick of DDR4 based LGA 1700 systems. I would also argue that there should also be an uptick in AM4 users in the wild, likely not to the same extent as LGA 1700. But they should both be ticking slightly upward if DDR5 pricing is the driving pressure behind going with a DDR4 based platform.
    Reply
  • pointa2b
    Wait until Zen 6:)
    Reply