That actually seems relatively high, if we use some estimate math to guesstimate that there are 132million active monthly users and there have been 3 million Steam Decks sold, that’s really about 2.27%. So for there to be about 8% more taking advantage of it does seem somewhat high
It’s 10% of users using Steam Input, not all steam users.
Valve mentioned that daily controller use has jumped to 15% from around 5% since 2018, and that around 42% of these sessions use Steam Input.
Oh. That makes sense, I play mainly on SteamDeck, but I’ve been thinking of getting a Steam Controller for my PC, since the majority of what I’ve bought in the last year has been “SteamDeck Verified”.
It’s been tickling my brain that “SteamDeck Verified” badge also makes it a lot easier to tell how a game will act with a controller on PC.
I mean steam already provides information on controller support, and will tell you if a game supports the controller you currently have plugged in. Afaik they don’t even sell steam controllers anymore.
will tell you if a game supports the controller you currently have plugged in
Today I learned that. It never came up for me since I do most of my game shopping on my phone. That could be really helpful later.
Thank you!
Maybe I’m misunderstanding – I was saying that 10% of users using Steam input would be from the 132million active users. So 3% of Steam users having Steam Decks that use Steam Input account for said 10%?
not all active users use steam input. vast majority use M&K, looks like 15% use controller,
so about 21m people use controllers, and about half of that is steam input?
so 10m, so 10% of 10m is 1million active steam deck users it seems
I see I understand.
Surprisingly low.
Those 59% with Xbox controllers probably wouldn’t even need to use it, and neither do most of the PS users either as most games would support them natively already.Though I have to wonder how much of that data is actually accurate - for example my setup would most likely show up as two Xbox controllers, but in reality it’s a Dualshock 3 and Dualshock 4 masquerading as Xinput devices through Vigembus and DS4Windows.
Even with native support, some games have idiotic controls and no remapping. Steams custom controller profiles give me a chance to remedy this.
I think that article’s headline is incorrect. Valve’s article said that 10% of controller sessions are Steam Decks, not 10% of Steam Input sessions. Here’s Valve’s article: https://steamcommunity.com/games/593110/announcements/detail/4142827237888316812
So weird that only 15% of Steam sessions are using controllers. I thought everyone had a controller. Most games are just better with a gamepad.
59% of controller sessions are using Xbox controllers. Not surprising, but I wonder how many of those Xbox controllers aren’t actually Xbox controllers. I use an 8BitDo Pro 2, which uses X-Input on PC. Though the majority of my gaming is done on Deck now.
Most games are better with a mouse and keyboard, from my limited controller experience. Smooth mouse movements, rather than pressing a lever to move the camera rotation in jerky motions which you then have to jerk back because you went too far. Lots of keys on a keyboard mean you can quickly launch a bunch of different menus with a single button press. And some mice have haptic feedback, which would be the main outstanding benefit of a controller.
I find gamepads to be more comfortable than mouse and keyboard, and most modern games are designed such that all of their functions can be performed comfortably on controller. I also tend to play a lot of games that benefit from having an analog stick.
All just preference, of course. Kb/m and gamepads are good at different things.
Controllers being better is your opinion, and seems like most steam players don’t agree.
Very fair. Personally, I think most games made today are designed around gamepads (with the exception of some genres, especially shooters), but even then kb/m does work fine for most games.
What I also wonder is if it’s measured by connected devices. I leave my controller in all the time
So weird that only 15% of Steam sessions are using controllers. I thought everyone had a controller. Most games are just better with a gamepad.
Even if that was true, not all games have the same number of players. Counterstrike and dota 2 regularly top the most played list on steam, and are terrible with a controller. It shouldn’t be surprising that most sessions have a kb/m if that’s what people are mostly playing.
That’s a good point. I did say “most games” because some genres are definitely better on kb/m, but I didn’t think about how that’s what most Steam users are probably playing.
I’ve been using it for years just to translate my PS4 controller to Xbox so it works with most games
