diff --git a/sstable/category_stats.go b/sstable/category_stats.go
index d5b200291e..9daf404183 100644
--- a/sstable/category_stats.go
+++ b/sstable/category_stats.go
@@ -9,6 +9,7 @@ import (
 	"slices"
 	"sync"
 	"time"
+	"unsafe"
 
 	"github.com/cockroachdb/errors"
 	"github.com/cockroachdb/redact"
@@ -96,45 +97,75 @@ type CategoryStatsAggregate struct {
 	CategoryStats CategoryStats
 }
 
+const numCategoryStatsShards = 16
+
 type categoryStatsWithMu struct {
 	mu sync.Mutex
 	// Protected by mu.
-	stats CategoryStatsAggregate
+	stats CategoryStats
 }
 
 // CategoryStatsCollector collects and aggregates the stats per category.
 type CategoryStatsCollector struct {
 	// mu protects additions to statsMap.
 	mu sync.Mutex
-	// Category => categoryStatsWithMu.
+	// Category => *shardedCategoryStats.
 	statsMap sync.Map
 }
 
+// shardedCategoryStats accumulates stats for a category, splitting its stats
+// across multiple shards to prevent mutex contention. In high-read workloads,
+// contention on the category stats mutex has been observed.
+type shardedCategoryStats struct {
+	Category Category
+	QoSLevel QoSLevel
+	shards   [numCategoryStatsShards]struct {
+		categoryStatsWithMu
+		// Pad each shard to 64 bytes so they don't share a cache line.
+		_ [64 - unsafe.Sizeof(categoryStatsWithMu{})]byte
+	}
+}
+
+// getStats retrieves the aggregated stats for the category, summing across all
+// shards.
+func (s *shardedCategoryStats) getStats() CategoryStatsAggregate {
+	agg := CategoryStatsAggregate{
+		Category: s.Category,
+		QoSLevel: s.QoSLevel,
+	}
+	for i := range s.shards {
+		s.shards[i].mu.Lock()
+		agg.CategoryStats.aggregate(s.shards[i].stats)
+		s.shards[i].mu.Unlock()
+	}
+	return agg
+}
+
 func (c *CategoryStatsCollector) reportStats(
-	category Category, qosLevel QoSLevel, stats CategoryStats,
+	p uint64, category Category, qosLevel QoSLevel, stats CategoryStats,
 ) {
 	v, ok := c.statsMap.Load(category)
 	if !ok {
 		c.mu.Lock()
-		v, _ = c.statsMap.LoadOrStore(category, &categoryStatsWithMu{
-			stats: CategoryStatsAggregate{Category: category, QoSLevel: qosLevel},
+		v, _ = c.statsMap.LoadOrStore(category, &shardedCategoryStats{
+			Category: category,
+			QoSLevel: qosLevel,
 		})
 		c.mu.Unlock()
 	}
-	aggStats := v.(*categoryStatsWithMu)
-	aggStats.mu.Lock()
-	aggStats.stats.CategoryStats.aggregate(stats)
-	aggStats.mu.Unlock()
+
+	shardedStats := v.(*shardedCategoryStats)
+	s := ((p * 25214903917) >> 32) & (numCategoryStatsShards - 1)
+	shardedStats.shards[s].mu.Lock()
+	shardedStats.shards[s].stats.aggregate(stats)
+	shardedStats.shards[s].mu.Unlock()
 }
 
 // GetStats returns the aggregated stats.
 func (c *CategoryStatsCollector) GetStats() []CategoryStatsAggregate {
 	var stats []CategoryStatsAggregate
 	c.statsMap.Range(func(_, v any) bool {
-		aggStats := v.(*categoryStatsWithMu)
-		aggStats.mu.Lock()
-		s := aggStats.stats
-		aggStats.mu.Unlock()
+		s := v.(*shardedCategoryStats).getStats()
 		if len(s.Category) == 0 {
 			s.Category = "_unknown"
 		}
@@ -175,6 +206,6 @@ func (accum *iterStatsAccumulator) reportStats(
 
 func (accum *iterStatsAccumulator) close() {
 	if accum.collector != nil {
-		accum.collector.reportStats(accum.Category, accum.QoSLevel, accum.stats)
+		accum.collector.reportStats(uint64(uintptr(unsafe.Pointer(accum))), accum.Category, accum.QoSLevel, accum.stats)
 	}
 }