I have a leather couch and a leather computer chair. The couch does show scratches - the cats can get up to speed and launch off of it. My dog Bandit used to sleep on it. Bo scratches it on the corners. It definitely shows signs of animal wear, but it is over twenty years old now. I have a newer, less than a year-old leather computer chair and it (so far) has fared better. Since it is smaller it is not used much for cat play, and doesn't have any scratches yet.

Personally, for larger items of furniture I'm going to stick with fabric - it hides the scratches better, in most cases.