The Base M4 Chip is the New King of Mac Gaming
Toggle Dark Mode
Nearly 20% of Mac gamers on Steam are using Macs powered by Apple’s M4 chip, according to user data provided by parent company Valve.
Steam’s monthly hardware and software survey shows that 19.6% of the Macs running Steam in December 2025 were powered by Apple’s M4 system-on-chip, which debuted for the Mac in Oct 2024. The second most popular chip, sitting at 18.06% of Macs used by Steam gamers, is the 2020-era M1 chip, reports AppleInsider.
While the M4 chip was replaced by the M5 chip with the release of the 14-inch MacBook Pro, the M4 remains the most popular Apple Silicon chip among Steam users. The new M5 chip, which debuted in October 2025, is used by just over 1% of Mac gamers with Steam.
While the M5 boasts up to 45% faster graphics than the M4 (2.5x faster than the M1), the M5 chip is so far only available in the 14-inch MacBook Pro, which would explain the processor’s low position in the Steam survey. Meanwhile, the M4 chip is used in nearly every other current Mac, including the MacBook Air, the Mac mini, and the 24-inch iMac. More powerful versions of the M4 chip are also used in the higher-end MacBook Pro, Mac mini, and Mac Studio, but these were listed separately, and beat out by nearly all the base M-series chips.
Third and fourth place among the most popular Mac processors for Steam players are the M2 and M3 chips, which had a 13.08% and 7.31% share of Mac machines on Steam, respectively. The M2 remains more popular than the M3, despite the M3’s ability to offer support for hardware-accelerated ray tracing and other features. However, the M3 also had a shorter run before it was superseded by the M4; the M2 MacBook Air was on the market for nearly two years before an M3 version arrived, and Apple never used that chip in the Mac mini, which skipped from the M2 straight to the M4.
Here are the full rankings of Apple’s M-Series chips in Macs used by Steam gamers, from most popular to least:
| Rank | Processor | Share (%) |
| 1 | Apple M4 | 19.60% |
| 2 | Apple M1 | 18.06% |
| 3 | Apple M2 | 13.08% |
| 4 | Apple M3 | 7.31% |
| 5 | Apple M1 Pro | 6.89% |
| 6 | Apple M4 Pro | 5.61% |
| 7 | Apple M3 Pro | 3.64% |
| 8 | Apple M2 Pro | 3.04% |
| 9 | Apple M1 Max | 2.61% |
| 10 | Apple M4 Max | 1.95% |
| 11 | Apple M3 Max | 1.45% |
| 12 | Apple M2 Max | 1.31% |
| 13 | Apple M5 | 1.09% |
| — | All Intel Macs | 14.36% |
The remaining 14.36% of Macs used by Steam gamers are powered by Intel chips.
As you can see, four out of five top spots in the list are occupied by core models, accounting for nearly 60% of all Macs on steam. Meanwhile, the Ultra variant chips used exclusively in the Mac Pro and Mac Studio don’t make an appearance at all in the list. Despite their potential as gaming powerhouses, the high cost of these machines tends to limit them to graphics and video professionals rather than gamers.
A December 2025 survey conducted by Steam shows that most Mac gamers have 16 GB of RAM installed in their machines, and more than a quarter of all users have updated their machines to macOS Tahoe 26.
Other interesting stats about the machines Mac users play Steam games on include:
- Primary Display Resolution (OSX): 1440 x 900 (19.76%)
- Multi-Monitor Desktop Resolution (OSX): 3840 x 2160 (19.21%)
- Language (OSX): English (69.67%)
- Free Hard Drive Space (OSX): 10 GB to 99 GB (34.19%)
- Total Hard Drive Space (OSX): 100 GB to 249 GB (37.01%)
This last statistic suggests that storage remains a significant pain point for Mac gaming, as many modern AAA games are now pushing 100 GB, especially once DLC is factored in. That suggests more than a third of Mac gamers are still struggling with base-model storage.
In recent years, Apple has made efforts to make the Mac more popular among gamers (and developers), although those efforts have been mostly less than successful. However, the M4 has proven to be a worthwhile upgrade among Mac gamers.
While the M5 will likely show gains in the next Steam surveys, as additional Macs using the new chip become available, it remains to be seen how long it will take for it to overtake the M4 as the most popular Apple Silicon chip for Steam gamers.
