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Valve shares some basic controller usage stats on Steam (48m Steam players used a controller in a Steam game)
- Thread starter Arthands
- Start date
Fairly unlikely. This is how it's been forever. Unless you give controller users broken amounts of auto-aim, it just isn't fun to use one in competitive shooters against m&kb users.
The right tool for the job at hand and all that...
I play RTS, Strategy games, FPS, RPGs etc. with mouse + keyboard. I play third person action games Like Souls, Nioh, P5S, Horizon Zero Dawn etc. with a controller.
I play RTS, Strategy games, FPS, RPGs etc. with mouse + keyboard. I play third person action games Like Souls, Nioh, P5S, Horizon Zero Dawn etc. with a controller.
Nioh didnt even release on xbox but the steam version had xbox controller prompts but not play station ones..
For competitive shooters sure, I was thinking more stuff like Doom Eternal tbh. I'm not really in to multiplayer these days outside of Rocket League, but love single player FPS campaigns.
Currently playing Kiwami 2, Hollow Knight, and Jenny LeClue on PC, and for all of them I use a gamepad, except when the pad needs charging. Kiwami 2 works surprisingly well on KBM, despite the dumb disclaimer QLOC puts in there.
If anything, considering how overpriced Sony controllers usually are for their ok-at-best build quality, it's amazing it's 21%. I love my DS4 and Dualsense, but that thing ain't worth 70€, considering the cheap components Sony puts in them.
Xbox 360s are the cheapest controllers out there, and still the easiest to use overall, even with Steam Input.Yeah, it's not just dominant but it's also growing. Playstation controller accounted for 27% of sessions in 2018, now only 21%.
So many people are missing out on the gyro and additional shortcuts provided by the PS controllers.
If anything, considering how overpriced Sony controllers usually are for their ok-at-best build quality, it's amazing it's 21%. I love my DS4 and Dualsense, but that thing ain't worth 70€, considering the cheap components Sony puts in them.
SCUF sued them for putting paddles on the controller, so it's unlikely. A new model is the only reason I sold mine, and now I'm regretting it.
...SNES? Nigh on two hundred thousand Steam users reported SNES controllers? That's quite something!Yeah, it's not just dominant but it's also growing. Playstation controller accounted for 27% of sessions in 2018, now only 21%.
So many people are missing out on the gyro and additional shortcuts provided by the PS controllers.
DS4 knockoffs are like $10-$15, and they're very easy to find. But I guess it's not a thing for core market audience.
I hate touching a keyboard when I game. Recently got into PC gaming and it feels weird gaming with a mouse and keys. Also why can't epic integrate game pad support like steam? It's can't be that hard.
What controller are you using? My little boy is playing Titanfall 2 on PC using a Wii Pro controller, getting smashed obviously. Wondering whether I should try and get my DS4 working with gyro through Steam.
yeah, and in a game such as the newly released apex legends (on steam anyway), the average is most certainly higher than about 15 percent more than likely. on pc for games like warzone, and apex, there are a huge amount of controller players. add crossplay to the pc side of things and it's gotta be arond 80 - 90 percent of players playing with controllers for those games. it will soon release on switch as well... counter strike, and pubg aren't likely to reflect many users with controllers
Yeah, I was 100% controller by the end of my time with PC. I hoped that the Steampad would enable KB+M games on TV, but it transpired the the UI on those games tended to be horrific, so I just didn't play them.
Yeah, it's not just dominant but it's also growing. Playstation controller accounted for 27% of sessions in 2018, now only 21%.
So many people are missing out on the gyro and additional shortcuts provided by the PS controllers.
Steam controller stat is incredible. Unless that is owned & not in use, because I count for one of those if so.
Impressive PS4 controller stats, I would have assumed XB1 was the default pad by some measure. It was for me.
I just wanna take this moment to say THANK FUCK for Steam input making DS4 usable on PC with pretty much any game.
ty valve. seriously. Steam input is amazing.
ty valve. seriously. Steam input is amazing.
Switch Pro controller, I can swap it with Ds4 but I prefer the digital triggers and asymmetric stick layout on Switch. I initially created my own config for gyro, but I recently tried using another user's config which is much better.
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Same, although in hindsight, I guess a very large percentage of the players that put a ton of hours on PC do mostly on shooters so it makes sense that the "per hour" statistics would favor kb/m dramatically.
You're missing out, everyone knows Civ is best played on a dance mat.
I looked at our two most recent games, Cosmic Star Heroine and Cthulhu Saves Christmas, and both of them had about 40% gamepad usage. Which means that about 60% of players played them using the keyboard. That really surprised me since they're retro-style turn-based JRPGs.
Speaking of which, are there any good turn-based JRPGs on Steam that use KB+M controls well? If most people are going to play without controllers, we should probably work on adding mouse support & making our games control better if you don't have a controller.
Speaking of which, are there any good turn-based JRPGs on Steam that use KB+M controls well? If most people are going to play without controllers, we should probably work on adding mouse support & making our games control better if you don't have a controller.
Most FPS out there are cross-platform so bound to have controller support for consoles. It would be weird to drop an option for PC that is already there in the code.
Making everything clickable with the mouse, adding mouse-based movement and right-click functionality and providing keyboard/mouse button shortcuts would provide a solid m&k experience. I can't remember specific example in the jRPG genre but you could look for inspiration in modern cRPGs likes Divinity, diablo-likes and maybe some older PC titles like King's Bounty: The Legend and Heroes of Might and Magic which used a jRPG-like combination of an overworld map and turn-based combat. My main tips would be a) add an option for diablo-style movement (click to move) b) Enable mouse usage for things like selecting targets and/or abilities c) allow keyboard shortcuts and d) add a hotbar on which the player can pin abilities and items for quick selection.
I find that I play anything that is not first person with the Steam Controller. It's better for analog movement and often works just fine for aiming with gyro and trackpad. One of my favorite things is that with Steam Input you have infinite ways to configure games to your liking with the controller you prefer.
Xbox controller popularity is no surprise even though it is inferior due to lacking a gyro. But it's plug in and play for most games whether they use Steam or not.
Xbox controller popularity is no surprise even though it is inferior due to lacking a gyro. But it's plug in and play for most games whether they use Steam or not.
it's great when game lets you have both input options active at the same time, like when I played witcher 3 with pad, but used keyboard+mouse to open map,inventory etc because its just way faster and easier to navigate all menu stuff with binds+mouse. same with ff xiv, the game plays fine with controller but going from menu to another menu to access something that's literally one keypress on kb is...
It's great having options and I love controller support on PC. Currently playing Hitman 1/2 content in H2 and play on the pad and then swap to the mouse on the rare occasion that I snipe (and I plan do the sniper maps 100% mouse). It's great getting the best of both worlds on the fly. I have even had a good bit of fun setting up controller configs for older games to see how natural I can make it feel. Managed to get Call of Duty 1 feeling pretty damn good and ended up beating it that day with the controller lol.
Yeah, it's not just dominant but it's also growing. Playstation controller accounted for 27% of sessions in 2018, now only 21%.
So many people are missing out on the gyro and additional shortcuts provided by the PS controllers.
Just a heads-up:
- The 21% figure in the image from yesterday's Steamworks post is regarding usage of PlayStation controllers in the example game. In the same post, above the first graph, Valve says the global average for PS controllers is 24%.
- The image you posted (from 2018's "Controller Gaming on PC" blog post) is about "device-account pairs" (aka which controllers are being used by which users), while the Steamworks post talks about sessions, so they can't be directly compared. For example, if we consider only two users (A and B) use Steam, user A has an Xbox controller and user B has a PlayStation controller, but user A had 9 sessions and user B had 1 session, the 2018 graph would indicate 50/50 ownership, but the Steamworks session data would show 90% of sessions with an Xbox controller.
I guess they like aiming with a device that doesn't suck ass at it?
Most "3D games" are also third person shooters (partially or totally).
EDIT - Since everyone is mentioning their own habits: I switch between keyboard and mouse, PS4 controller, XBox 360 controller and flight stick (Thrustmaster 16000T something) pretty much on a game-by-game basis.
For anything first person the controller is an absolute no go, when it's third person it strongly depends on the type of game and how it feels specifically.
Yeah, exactly. Would be interesting to see the breakdown of actual 360 controllers vs all the 3rd party stuff.
I see. I was wondering about that too, why did they use the different term now, sessions, instead of ownership back in 2018. But that said, PS controllers ownership are still down regardless.
That's how I played through it too, as a comfy couch gamer. But then my PC is basically set up to be a supercharged console, where I play everything that isn't console exclusive with higher framerates, resolutions and settings. And Doom Eternal at 4k/120/Ultra is freakin insane. But I guess most people play PC games at their desk or on a laptop rather than on a comfy couch in the living room. The beauty of PC is it can be anything you want it to be.
What on earth are you talking about? This is like the opposite situation. On PC of course mouse and keyboard has excellent support, it's usually the controller support that is lacking and why Steam has to have labels for "Partial Controller Support" and "Full Controller Support" because it is not a given that it will be there right out of the box. Hopefully this data will be used to convince devs to integrate better controller support as they learn that not everyone wants to play everything with a m/kb and that a ton of people still prefer a controller.
They have long been basically the de facto standard. Even when using a PS controller, you're still going to have Xbox button labels/prompts in-game 90% of the time.
