The evidence that AMD is catching up to Intel in the DIY (Do It Yourself) PC market has been mounting for some time. On Amazon and Newegg, Ryzen processors are often featured as best sellers alongside Intel's, Ryzen is a common recommendation from reviewers in several price categories, and perhaps most importantly, sales figures from websites with public sales information reflects a rise of AMD sales and a fall in Intel's.
On that note, Tweakers reports AMD is on track to surpass Intel's market share in the Benelux (Belgium, Netherlands, and Luxembourg) region, making it the second region in Europe where a retailer has reported that AMD has taken the lead over Intel, the first being Germany, where AMD now leads Intel sales in both units sold and overall revenue on the website Mindfactory.
As can be seen in these sales figures for Mindfactory in late 2018, AMD has captured the majority of the market in terms of units sold, though in AMD leads Intel in revenue by only a small margin because AMD's CPUs are generally much less expensive. AMD's victories in the custom market likely boil down to Intel's CPU shortage and the strong perception that AMD represents a better value than Intel, a common praise of Ryzen from reviewers. AMD's mid-range Ryzen 5 2600 is by far its most popular seller in Germany, whereas Intel's best seller is the high-end Core i7-8700K, with other higher end K-series CPUs close behind.
However, these sales actually don't represent a large increase in AMD's share of the desktop market as a whole. As of Q4 of 2018, AMD had only 15.8% of the desktop market, up 3.8% since the last year. This increase is probably largely in part thanks to AMD's gains in the DIY PC market, but people who build their own PCs are a small part of the market. That being said, having so many enthusiasts buy AMD hardware is important for brand recognition and word of mouth. With AMD gaining superiority in the DIY market in Europe, other regions could be soon to follow.
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