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Xbox controller remains the preferred choice on PC

There's been a surge in Switch Pro controllers as well.

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Valve introduced Steam Input controller facilities three years ago, and ever since they've been collecting data on how PC gamers have been using the different controllers available on the market on Steam. Now they've gathered together data for a report that makes for interesting reading.

First and foremost, and as expected, Xbox controllers remain the king when it comes to playing on PC. The Xinput protocol spread widely back in the Xbox 360 days, and the trend continued into this generation. Thus, there are almost 40 million Xbox One and 360 controllers registered on Steam, which is a massive share of the 60 million total devices (which, it's worth noting, have been registered by around 30 million users).

Nintendo has a pretty unique mixture when it comes to its share, as amazingly enough, it combines both legacy controllers (more than 300,000 SNES and Gamecube controllers have been registered) with a growing trend for the Nintendo Switch Pro Controller (450,000+), which is only a year and a half old. The May 2018 update for this controller made it even more popular, and now it's the second most popular controller on Steam, with almost 15% of controller users using one in the last month, right behind the almost 20% playing on an Xbox One controller.

While PlayStation has the second biggest share historically (with PS4 and PS3 above 15 million), their not-so-clear mapping is apparently making users ditch them in favour of the aforementioned options (and PS3 has even been used more than the DS4 in the last month), but given PlayStation 4 installed base and the popularity of its DualShock 4, it's only natural they will remain strong. In fact, Valve talk about potential full in-game integration of Steam Input for every game, which would show adapted prompts and menus.

Elsewhere Valve confirmed that they've sold 1.3 million Steam Controllers (which are used in a wide range of genres), whereas 1.5 million PC-dedicated controllers, 300,000+ fight sticks and, surprisingly enough, less than 118,000 racing wheels have been registered.

How do you play on Steam?

Xbox controller remains the preferred choice on PC
Xbox controller remains the preferred choice on PC


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