The hardware barrier to entry for PC gaming is becoming ever higher, but there's a small consolation for gamers - more and more people are turning to consoles as an affordable alternative. PC prices remain high, memory shortages are expected to continue until 2026 or even 2027, and sales decline is a foregone conclusion: the latest data from Amazon in the United States shows that CPU sales in the first quarter of 2026 plummeted 47% compared with the same period in 2025.
Memory prices have skyrocketed a few months ago, with some models tripled to quadruple in price. 32GB DDR5 memory used to cost less than 100 euros, but now it costs 300 to 400 euros (approximately RMB 2,350 to 3,150 yuan). This isn't even the fastest model - in fact, the regular 5600-6000MHz CL40 modules are selling the fastest. The AI industry's demand for memory far exceeds existing supply and production capabilities, leading to severe shortages.
Affected by this, PC shipments are expected to drop by more than 10% in 2026, and Amazon's sales data are more intuitive. According to a 3DCenter report, CPU sales in the first quarter of 2026 (mainly February) dropped sharply by 47% compared with the same period last year.
Specifically, sales in January 2026 were 26,100 units, in December 2025 they were 44,400 units, and in November and October 2025 they were both between 60,000 and 70,000 units. The highest weekly sales in history occurred in June 2025, reaching 118,929 units. The data comes from Mindfactory and Amazon weekly sales information released by TechEpiphany on the platform.
Coincidentally, the same is true for domestic graphics cards. It has been previously reported that all brand graphics cards fell by about 59% month-on-month in February compared with January, and compared with the year-on-year decline of about 42% in February 2025, there was an obvious sharp decline.
The specific statistics are as follows:
During this statistical period, Amazon sold a total of 25,700 processors in the United States. AMD was far ahead with a share of 86.1%, selling approximately 23,000 units at an average price of US$281 (approximately RMB 2,000); Intel sold 2,700 units at an average price of US$313 (approximately RMB 2,250). Even in such a severe market environment, AMD's market position remains solid.
The changes in the sales structure are worth pondering: the AM4 platform accounted for 39%, and AM5 accounted for 47.2%, showing that the old platform is catching up with the new platform. Surprisingly, the entry-level processor Ryzen 5 5500 ranks at the top of the best-selling list - at a time when memory is in short supply and machine prices are high, consumers are more inclined to save money. At the same time, the high-end model Ryzen 7 9800X3D is still strong, with 4,000 units sold, keeping pace with the 5500 units.
Following closely behind were the Ryzen 7 7800X3D and Ryzen 7 5800XT, with around 2,000 units sold each. The 1,000-unit models sold include Ryzen 5600, Ryzen 5 9600X, Ryzen 5 7600X and Ryzen 9 9950X3D. In the Intel camp, Core Ultra 7 265K and Core Ultra 9 285K sold about 500 units each.