// PC GAMER — GAMING
Both AMD and Intel's desktop CPU sales are falling off a cliff but Ryzen is falling a little slower
Desktop processors aren't selling as well as they were, I wonder why.
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works.
Apart from the very occasional bundle, I can't remember the last time we recommended a deal on a CPU. Monitors, yes. Gaming PCs, definitely. But not CPUs, because however well-priced they are, it's hard to recommend a system upgrade when buying the rest of the system needed to go along with it is so damn expensive. I'm not entirely surprised, then, that Mercury Research says that desktop CPU shipments from AMD and Intel "in the second quarter are best described as ugly."
According to the market research firm, this is the case despite growth in the overall CPU market:
"In spite of a decidedly gloomy outlook on client processors from the suppliers for the second quarter, actual results for both X86 and ARM CPUs were up strongly in the second quarter of 2026, with sequential quarterly growth of the total market exceeding 10 percent, far in excess of normal seasonal trends which call for a slight decline in the quarter."
In other words, server and mobile (laptop) CPUs spanning x86 and ARM are doing well enough that the poor sales of x86 CPUs doesn't damage the overall CPU market picture.
But for us gamers, those x86 'client' CPUs are the important ones, as they're what sit inside our gaming rigs.
Mercury says: "while server and mobile CPU shipments had strong growth, desktop CPU shipments declined on top of an already poor first quarter, resulting in a large on-year downturn in excess of 20%. Both AMD and Intel experienced significant on-year weakness in desktop CPUs—with AMD having relatively smaller declines—however on a sequential basis AMD's declines were much smaller than Intel's. As a result AMD gained share both sequentially and on year in desktop CPUs, in spite of lower shipments."
In other words, both AMD's and Intel's desktop CPU sales seem to be falling down quite a steep hill, but Intel's are falling a little quicker, meaning AMD is technically scooping up more market share in this space. It's just that space itself is getting smaller.
Keep up to date with the most important stories and the best deals, as picked by the PC Gamer team.