The Xbox 360 controller is most commonly used on Steam, but the PS4 device is no less

The article “Controller Gaming on PC” has just revealed interesting information about the controllers that people use to play on Steam.

“Controllers that are compatible with PC games are usually managed by game developers, which means that games will support a number of hardware devices available and players choose from that list. In 2015, Valve started experimenting to find out what would happen if the community were less restricted. Three years later, the Steam Input test has begun to produce interesting results.”

The report gives us a glimpse into the evolution of controller usage on PC games. First, controllers are really popular on PCs, with over 30 million users registering at least one device for their account. The vast majority use a mass controller, led by Xbox: 64% use an Xbox One or 360 controller.

But Valve said the PS4 controller also “takes up a lot” with 20% of devices registered, due to the lack of built-in support. The DualShock 4 is a great controller, but it requires external software to work making it harder to get used to.

“A game requires you to ‘press Y to jump’ but in reality, you have to press the triangle button,” Valve said. “Having to understand the terminology and then translate it to the controller can be a hindrance for certain PS4 controller users, and we can clearly see them in the monthly play data.”

“Clearly, the PS4 controller community on Steam is huge and potential.”

The Nintendo Switch Pro controller, with basic support via Bluetooth in 2017 and full support on Steam earlier this year, is “fairly popular for new devices,” yet its user base is pretty low, just under 500,000 devices. Valve Controller: Steam Controller makes up the big numbers, with 1.5 million registered devices but it’s used far more than other controllers: Steam Controller is used almost twice as many games as controllers other.

“Also, a lot of games don’t have controller support built in,” Valve notes. “We are pleased to see customers engaging with all types of games and continue to improve the Steam Controller experience for current and future users.”

The purpose of this report is to help Valve look to the future for controller support, and it will create “unique experiences” across diverse devices. “Of course, the Xbox controller will make up 64% of Steam users, but what about the other 22 million devices? Furthermore, future controllers will add features that weren’t available, or were not popular, at the time of the game’s release.”

Valve said it will delve into these features in a future post: “to show how they can serve a wider audience on Steam.”