Valve shares some basic controller usage stats on Steam (48m Steam players used a controller in a Steam game)

[Arthands]

Steam :: Steamworks Development :: NEW: See Which Controllers Players Are Using In Your Game

New reporting shows the major controller models that your players have and which ones they use to play your game

steamcommunity.com

Valve is announcing that their update to Steam today, will provide additional information to the developers in regards to the controllers from the players on their games. For example, how many players of their games has used a controller for other Steam games, how many players play their games with a controller, what controller them use etc. This is done so that the developer have data to decide whether it is feasible to add controller support, and how/where to improve their controller support.

In the midst of the announcement article, Valve also share some basic stats regarding controllers on Steam:

Let's start with some figures for a sense of scale:
48 Million players have used a controller in a game on Steam, with about 10% of daily game sessions being played with a controller.
Of course, that controller usage isn't distributed evenly across all kinds of games. Many RTS games, are hard to play with a controller of any kind and tend to have a much smaller percentage of players using a controller (frequently below 1%). In contrast, many sports and fighting games see over 70% of sessions played with a controller, while racing and skating games can easily have over 90% of players using a controller. On the action and adventure fronts, most 3rd person adventure games see 40-50% of players using a controller, and the majority of FPS games are solidly in the range of 7-8%.

The usefulness of this reporting may depend on the kind of game you are making. But, in general, a lot of players like to play a large cross section of games on Steam with a controller – which is something many people, including those of us at Valve, find a bit surprising.

Click to shrink...

 

[Akalance]

I honestly thought it would be a lot higher than 10% overall.

 

[Anustart]

I change between controller and kb m based on the game. Rocket league? Kb m. Civilization? Controller.

 

[texhnolyze]

If you release a turn-based or action RPG without controller support, I'm not bothering with your product.

The only thing that I can still tolerate is RTwP RPGs, but even Pathfinder devs have found a way to incorporate controller into the game.

 

[Charizard]

I honestly thought it would be a lot higher than 10% overall.

Click to shrink...

I mean, wouldn't a lot of Steam sessions be games like DOTA2 or CS:GO where you usually wouldn't use a controller anyways? If you restrict things to controller-friendly genres then it seems like the % is a lot higher.

 

[Deleted member 21709]

I change between controller and kb m based on the game. Rocket league? Kb m. Civilization? Controller.

Click to shrink...

LOL

 

[Duxxy3]

Top 10 steam games:

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive
Dota 2
Valheim
PLAYERUNKNOWN'S BATTLEGROUNDS
Apex Legends
Team Fortress 2
Grand Theft Auto V
Rust
Destiny 2
鬼谷八荒 (Tale of Immortal)

Not a surprise that 90% of sessions use a keyboard and mouse when looking at that.

 

[Deleted member 67800]

thanks for share, there are some games that I would like to use the controller, such as RPGs, Baldur's Gate, Pillars of Eternity and others, which have control support in console editions but in the steam version do not give this possibility.

 

[Yang1992]

It depends on the game genres, I like to use the controller for ARPG, but for FPS games, KB is the best for me as always.

 

[YukiroCTX]

Shows significant amounts of people have controllers but rarely much people wants to use them for shooters because of big disadvantages kind of a big lie frequently I've seen suggesting otherwise. Prefer 3rd person Single player games via Controller.

 

[5taquitos]

That's a lot of uncles with controllers.

 

[345]

 

[Deleted member 23046]

I honestly thought it would be a lot higher than 10% overall.

Click to shrink...

When you look on most played Steam games, the volume of players on DotA, CSGO, PUBG, [trending-AA--survival-of-the-month] is gigantic compared to any other game. And these won't be played with a controller.

 

[inner-G]

I play basically everything with a controller when I can.

 

[slothrop]

I count as someone who "has used a controller", but like, very rarely for only a few games.

 

[Chief Malik]

Not surprised to see FPS controller usage so low. Terrible input method for shooters. Gyro makes it good enough for it to be bearable.

 

[Giant Panda]

I use a controller whenever feasible, so I hope these stats lead to better controller support.

 

[Deleted member 12833]

I change between controller and kb m based on the game. Rocket league? Kb m. Civilization? Controller.

Click to shrink...

Thanks for the laugh

 

[Commander Keen]

I play EVERY PC/Steam game with a controller unless it's......

A.) RTS games
B.) It's a REALLY old game

I love my PC and play all my games on it now besides a little Switch and 3DS. But personally I like to be able to kick back and relax with a controller. I only play games at night typically after I've already worked, exercised and cared for my children.

So when it's Joint time and game time, want to sit back lol........legal in my state :)
(Using 55" C8 OLED as monitor)

 

[dom]

I change between controller and kb m based on the game. Rocket league? Kb m. Civilization? Controller.

Click to shrink...

 

[Heart of Poumn]

Surprised how dominant xbox controllers are over playstation ones. I knew it would be higher, but not 'vast majority' levels.

 

[Anustart]

Thanks for the laugh

Click to shrink...

Was trying to think of the most cumbersome game to play with controller, I'm sure there's a better one out there lol.

 

[jetsetrez]

Many RTS games, are hard to play with a controller of any kind and tend to have a much smaller percentage of players using a controller (frequently below 1%). In contrast, many sports and fighting games see over 70% of sessions played with a controller, while racing and skating games can easily have over 90% of players using a controller. On the action and adventure fronts, most 3rd person adventure games see 40-50% of players using a controller, and the majority of FPS games are solidly in the range of 7-8%.

Click to shrink...

These are more useful stats than the 10% imo. The 10% is misleading because of how many of the top games are just not suited to controller. When it comes to games suited to controllers, the percentages are much more reasonable.

 

[tobes231]

Surprised how dominant xbox controllers are over playstation ones. I knew it would be higher, but not 'vast majority' levels.

Click to shrink...

I know personally that I still like to use DS4Windows whenever I use my Dualshock (or more recently Dualsense) on PC, and that causes Steam to read it as a 360 controller. That might be a factor.

 

[Pheace]

Surprised how dominant xbox controllers are over playstation ones. I knew it would be higher, but not 'vast majority' levels.

Click to shrink...

Used to be the standard recommendation because they worked out of the box I think while Playstation controllers needed special software/drivers. I had an Xbox controller for use with my PC too and I never bought an Xbox in my life, and I definitely prefer the PS controllers.

 

[Conkerkid11]

Damn, looking at this on an individual game basis requires you to be the dev of that game? Was hoping for open data. Really curious about some games.

 

[AfropunkNyc]

Majority of my gaming on pc is with a controller.

 

[texhnolyze]

Surprised how dominant xbox controllers are over playstation ones. I knew it would be higher, but not 'vast majority' levels.

Click to shrink...

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.

 

[wafflebrain]

Stuff like Soulslikes and platformers I usually go with controller, almost everything else is kb+m. I'm addicted to my mechanical keyboard :P

 

[J75]

I never use keyboard and mouse on PC. Have my PC set up like a console, hooked up on the TV and everything.

 

[demondance]

PS and Switch controllers are honestly better on PC than Xbox controllers, with the touchpad on PS and motion controls on both. They also have more seamless bluetooth support than Xbox controllers for some reason. More people should try them out.

 

[Soap]

A controller just seems more versatile/comfortable to me compared to a keyboard. I only really use kb&m for management and strategy games.

 

[Cantaim]

Personally I play just about everything on PC with a controller. But this is because I like 3d platformers and I'll die before I use WASD to play them.

 

[Hamster Plugin]

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.

Click to shrink...

Over 200k people using Rock Band instruments when the game isn't even on PC? Lots of people trying challenge runs (like "Dark Souls with guitar") I see.

 

[Deleted member 68874]

Damn 360 is still the top dawg for PC gaming. I cant go back to it after using the Xbox One controller.

 

[Virtua Sanus]

I never play any games with keyboard and mouse except for Two Point Hospital. If they ever add controller support to that I will likely move to controller for that too.

Most people I know are like this too, but most people in my circles do not play games like DotA 2 or PUBG.

 

[sredgrin]

It's no surprise Xbox is more dominant, it's plug and play more or less, and works outside the ecosystem too with little fiddling.

Sony should consider doing some driver or software support of the DS4 / Dualsense especially as they move into PC gaming more and more.

 

[sacrament]

I change between controller and kb m based on the game. Rocket league? Kb m. Civilization? Controller.

Click to shrink...

Are you opposite day incarnation?

 

[TheRed]

I hope they noticed me use the steam controller to play Dota 2 😏

 

[GhostofWar]

Over 200k people using Rock Band instruments when the game isn't even on PC? Lots of people trying challenge runs (like "Dark Souls with guitar") I see.

Click to shrink...

Could that include real guitars for rocksmith? I've got no idea what they would be detected as but that is on steam.

 

[GiantEnemyCrab]

So many people use playstation controllers and a lot of developers, even big ones still pretend only XBOX controllers exist on PC...

 

[BeI]

It's too bad more Xbox controller users don't seem to use Steam input. Even if I don't use some more advanced options in a game, I usually find it good to lower joystick dead zones for more responsive joystick controls.

 

[Tailzo]

I change between controller and kb m based on the game. Rocket league? Kb m. Civilization? Controller.

Click to shrink...

I love civ vi on consoles. Can the pc version be played with a controller too?

 

[curiouscharles]

Not surprising given the most played games on Steam.

After retiring from Apex last April, I only play games on Steam best played with a game pad...

Stress of COVID becoming a thing + elevated heartrate from competitive PC fps games was too much to handle (started getting anxiety attacks it was super weird).

 

[shockdude]

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.

Click to shrink...

Today I learned Steam supports PS3 controllers through Steam Input. I should experiment with this later.

 

[Iron Eddie]

I really don't know how anyone can rationally explain how WASD is better than using an analog stick to control your character in 3D?

This is the beauty of PC, play how you want.

 

[turbobrick]

Surprised how dominant xbox controllers are over playstation ones. I knew it would be higher, but not 'vast majority' levels.

Click to shrink...

I mean, it wasn't too long ago where you plugged in an xbox 360 controller and it just worked, where as you couldn't do that with a playstation controller.

I used my 360 controller on PC for a long time, then I upgraded to an xbox one controller when they came out, and I'll probably be using it as long as it still works.

 

[Gelf]

Use controller whenever I can unless it's a game that uses a mouse pointer. Not going to use a pad for something like Cities Skylines or any RTS.

I highly appreciate just being able to use any controller I want. In this age of expensive hardware built with drift prone sticks it's nice knowing I could use almost any of the controllers I have lying around from the last 20+ years if need be.

 

[Tangyn]

I change between controller and kb m based on the game. Rocket league? Kb m. Civilization? Controller.

Click to shrink...

Yep me too. This is the correct way to do things - some stuff is just better with Controller / KB&M and thankfully steam made it easy to switch between em.

 

[pswii60]

Couch PC gamer here so I play everything with a controller.

Really hope those low controller numbers for FPS games don't encourage developers to drop controller support for PC FPS games.