Varminter22 has made a valid point about competition shooters in USPSA & ICORE using mostly S&W revolvers. In general,, that brand is preferred by the majority in those competitions.
But he left out the IHMSA competition shooters.
In that,, the Rugers as well as Dan Wessons along with some S&W handguns ALL are used more often. But many a champion AND casual shooters use a lot more Rugers there than S&W.
As a USPSA shooter (over 25 years),, AND a revolver class shooter,, let's look at these numbers a bit. In USPSA,, with a membership of about 50,000 competitors,, the majority of them use some form of semi-auto. Revolver shooters are a VERY small percentage of the actual regular competitors in USPSA. So it's not a good place to use that competition as an example. ICORE is about revolvers.
And yes,, the larger percentage of shooters use S&W revolvers. But let's look at history & why. First off, S&W was building DA revolvers long before Bill Ruger even started building any guns. Decades before. And yes,, they do have a smooth action, and while many tout the faster lock time,, FEW people can gain any advantage because of that.
Next, look at the approach to marketing.
For many years,, S&W offered a DA revolver that used moon clips,,(in .45 acp,) and that equates to SPEED in a game such as ICORE or USPSA. Then they also introduced the 8-shot DA revolver in .9mm. Again,, it uses moon clips, and again,, speed.
Ruger didn't have any comparable DA revolver in their line. Naturally everybody used S&W's. Besides,, a .9mm ESPECIALLY a minor power factor load,, isn't the same at all as a .44 magnum in a IHMSA type of competition.
But let's look at Bullseye & PPC shooting. MANY Rugers were used in these types of competitions, and won in good hands. A well tuned Ruger was & still is competitive there.
Ruger has never invested a lot into the competition arena when it comes to their models. Yes,, they finally did add the Super GP100 in .9mm & .38 cal. The .9mm has been dropped currently,, but could come back. I currently use a Ruger Super GP in ,9mm (thanks Kevin,) and enjoy it. Yes,, it's in the minority of competition revolvers,, but I sure do get a LOT of positive comments & offers to sell it.
While speed competitions are a fun thing, and much more common nowadays,, revolvers are not the first choice of most competitors. As such,, in marketing,, you build a product that sells a LOT. Sadly,, DA revolvers are not selling as many or as quickly as semi-autos.
So, yes,, S&W does enjoy the top spot in speed games in the DA revolver line.
BUT,,, let's look at a whole different thing. Real world users. Ruger SA revolvers are THE gun everybody compares others to. Yes,, Freedom Arms is considered the top of the line,, but the working man's gun and the one type of revolver used most often for hunting, customizing, and specialty shooting is Ruger.
Bill Ruger focused his efforts on the SA line long before trying the DA line. And he got that right. S&W can not touch Ruger in the SA line. In fact,, they haven't even tried.
S&W DA's for hunting & competition have a long history of needing "rebuilding" of some things after a lot of use. Rugers suffer MUCH less of that kind of necessary work.
Throw in all the custom gun building gunsmiths, that focused mostly on Rugers to build the bigger, more powerful calibers,, all use Ruger SA's as their base gun. Much more often than any S&W DA revolvers.
In short,, BOTH S&W and Ruger have their market share for specific purposes. But to defend one brand over another based upon a narrow spectrum of types of shooting is not a true measure of anything. It's the overall millions of casual shooters & users that drive a market.