Steam players' use of controllers has tripled since 2018

Steam Deck från Valve är imponerande hårdvara, men det finns några anledningar till att låta bli att köpa den. (Image credit: Valve/Future)

Valve has shared how many of its Steam users are playing games with a controller.

In a new Steam blog post, Valve revealed that more players are choosing to play Steam games with a controller than ever, and that since 2018, the daily average controller use has tripled from 5% to up to 15%.

It also confirmed that 42% of these controller sessions are using the Steam Input feature.

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In terms of which controllers are being used the most, Xbox is winning by a landslide. According to Valve, 59% of sessions are played using an Xbox controller, while 26% are using PlayStation - likely the DualSense or DualShock 4 - and 10% are on Steam Deck.

"As usage has grown, our team has continued working to improve and add features to enhance the controller experience for these players," Valve explained, before listing a number of the new features that it has released for Steam Input and controller recently.

These include a Big Picture mode update, which introduced a complete redesign of the controller-first experience on Steam, which also brought Steam Deck user experience to the big screen, as well as new controller configurations, Gyro aiming, virtual menus for the desktop client, and PlayStation and Xbox controller support.

Valve also just added support for the latest Horipad controller for Steam. From Japanese peripheral manufacturer Hori, the Wireless Horipad will be available in Japan on October 31 and is listed at 7,980 Yen ($50 / £40).

It will come in four color variants, including Midnight Black, Shiny White, Neon Yellow, and Luminous Violet.

Steam now allows over 300 supported controllers, and if you're looking for some recommendations, you can check out our guide for the best PC controllers of 2024.