Apple’s M4 Chip Leads Among Mac Gamers on Steam
In December 2025, Valve’s Steam hardware and software survey revealed that Apple’s M4 chip has become the most popular Apple Silicon among Mac gamers, powering 19.60% of Macs running Steam. This marks a significant shift from earlier preferences, with the M1 chip from 2020 now accounting for 18.06% of Macs used by Steam gamers.
Evolution of Apple’s M4 Chip
Introduced in May 2024, the M4 chip initially debuted in the iPad Pro before being integrated into a broad range of Mac devices, including the 24-inch iMac, Mac mini, MacBook Air, and MacBook Pro. This widespread adoption has contributed to its prominence among the gaming community. The M4 features a 10-core CPU, comprising four performance cores and six efficiency cores, along with a 10-core GPU and a 16-core Neural Engine capable of 38 trillion operations per second. These specifications offer a substantial performance boost over its predecessors.
Comparative Popularity of Apple Silicon Chips
Following the M4 and M1, the M2 and M3 chips hold 13.08% and 7.31% of the Mac gaming market on Steam, respectively. Notably, the M2 remains more popular than the M3, despite the latter’s support for hardware-accelerated ray tracing and other advanced features. This trend suggests that factors beyond raw performance, such as device availability and user familiarity, influence adoption rates.
Limited Adoption of M5 Chip
The M5 chip, announced in October 2025, is currently utilized by just over 1% of Mac gamers on Steam. Despite delivering up to 45% faster graphics compared to the M4 and being 2.5 times faster than the M1, its limited availability—exclusively in the 14-inch MacBook Pro—has constrained its adoption. As the M5 becomes available across more Mac models, its presence in the gaming community is expected to grow.
Mac Gaming Landscape and Future Outlook
Apple’s efforts to position Macs as viable gaming platforms have faced challenges. However, the M4 chip’s performance has provided a compelling option for gamers. The December 2025 Steam survey also indicated that Mac gamers predominantly use machines with 16GB of RAM, with over 25% running macOS Tahoe. As the M5 chip becomes more accessible across the Mac lineup, future surveys are anticipated to reflect its increased adoption among gamers.
