Steam's average controller use triples to 15 percent, with majority usage from Xbox controllers

Valve introduced controller support to Steam in 2018, and the developer says controller usage has shot up to 15 percent, three times the amount six years ago.

Back in 2020, Valve released a similar factoid, saying at the time usage had doubled. Of this new metric, it’s said that 59 percent stems from Xbox gamepads, with PlayStation trailing behind at 26 percent. 10 percent of players use their Steam Deck.

“More players than ever are choosing to play Steam games with a controller,” Valve noted. It added that its Steam Input service (which functions as an emulator for game controllers) was used for 42 percent of controller sessions.

Last year, Valve let developers post which PlayStation controllers their games support (between DualShock and DualSense). The feature reflected PlayStation’s growing PC presence, which had grown to 27 percent from 2018’s 11 percent.

Both PlayStation and Xbox have been adding their exclusives to Steam, often with a recommendation that a controller be used in place of mouse and keyboard. Some types of games (like Helldivers 2 or Starfield) may necessitate a controller.

In the years since controller support was implemented, Valve’s added new features and expanded the range of support for controllers from the two consoles. It cites that as the reason for increased support, and said it’ll keep working on that and Steam Input for the future.