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If I remember correctly, the majority of pc gamers use controllers, based on Steam stats. That being said, we can assume that people looking for split screen h

If I remember correctly, the majority of pc gamers use controllers, based on Steam stats. That being said, we can assume that people looking for split screen have the equipment to play such games (which I assume it's multiple controllers)

Karliss 3y ago
According to this (2022) https://steamcommunity.com/groups/steamworks/announcements/detail/3133946090937137591 https://steamcommunity.com/groups/steamworks/announcements/d... it's only 10% of daily gaming sessions. Slightly older (2021) steam post https://store.steampowered.com/news/group/4145017/view/3061855517864424914 https://store.steampowered.com/news/group/4145017/view/30618... suggests better number depending on game genre. Although considering that whole point of that post is to encourage developers having better controller support, and suspicious category grouping and and qualifiers like "racing and skating games", "many sports and fighting games" and fact that some of those genres are often played with genre specific controllers I would take those number with grain of salt. From the other number of 48m players who have used a controller at least once with ~130m overall active monthly users less than 35% of players with a controller seems likely, considering that not every player from first category is regular active user. And from the same link only 10-15% controller sessions with multiple controllers. So maybe 3-4% with multiple controllers. Although actual number with multiple controllers might be slightly higher compared to session percentage, since many games act buggy with multiple controllers, so it's not uncommon to disconnect all the extra controllers while playing single player games. From the controller friendly (but also keyboard friendly) PC games I have worked on, 10-30% of players using controller seems reasonable number. It very much depends on how you define majority. Considering that 4/5 most played games on steam based on current player count are FPS (which on PC are almost exclusively played with mouse and keyboard), not surprising that the "daily gaming session" 10% number is skewed more towards the lower range of estimate. If you exclude FPS numbers are better but even then it's far from majority of PC gamers.
- Fire-Dragon-DoL 3y ago
  Interesting, thank you for finding that looks like I misremembered. I would exclude rts and fps for the simple fact that those are made with mouse in mind on pc, but fps is challenging because they do work well with controllers on split screen (and you can't play an fps with just keyboard). I think the good answer is in the stats, 35% of players connected a controller, that's a lot of controllers. There might be more, there might be some with multiple. But it's a chicken-egg problem. People don't have multiple controllers because they don't make split screen games anymore, most of them require multiple consoles/pcs. I follow the genre a lot since I want to play with my wife and my friends. It's mostly indie games with the exception of bg3/divinity original sin.
helboi4 3y ago
That does not sound accurate at all. I've rarely seen a PC gamer use a controller. In fact for many types of games mice are preferable. There's a few genres where controllers are always better but I find that's not the bulk of what PC gamers play anyway.
- Fire-Dragon-DoL 3y ago
  That's anecdotal
  - mr_briggs 3y ago
    It would be quite amusing if only the majority of 'steam users that provide feedback' are controller users, while most MKB users don't provide feedback.
    - Fire-Dragon-DoL 3y ago
      I feel like I know you, lol
  - helboi4 3y ago
    Sure but like... anyone in the PC gaming community would confirm. I used to read PC Gamer magazine a lot when I was younger, watch constant PC gaming setup videos, all of them included mice and keyboards. Almost none of them included controllers. I think there's a bias to the data used in your claim. My claim is not anecdotal based on just my own personal experience. It's based on my experience and about any content you can find about PC gaming out there.
    - Fire-Dragon-DoL 3y ago
      I'm a PC gamer, have 8 controllers and have done none of the things you listed, except learning how to build a PC. I'm not saying it can't be like you described, but observation from your point of view (your life) is not a valid statistic. Steam stats covers a lot of pc gamers, so we can and should be relying on that. 130M pc gamers is more than we can ever observe in life, and at least 48M of them have controllers
Hikikomori 3y ago
Most might have a controller and use one for some games, doesn't mean that most players always use one.

Karliss 3y ago

According to this (2022) https://steamcommunity.com/groups/steamworks/announcements/detail/3133946090937137591 https://steamcommunity.com/groups/steamworks/announcements/d... it's only 10% of daily gaming sessions. Slightly older (2021) steam post https://store.steampowered.com/news/group/4145017/view/3061855517864424914 https://store.steampowered.com/news/group/4145017/view/30618... suggests better number depending on game genre. Although considering that whole point of that post is to encourage developers having better controller support, and suspicious category grouping and and qualifiers like "racing and skating games", "many sports and fighting games" and fact that some of those genres are often played with genre specific controllers I would take those number with grain of salt. From the other number of 48m players who have used a controller at least once with ~130m overall active monthly users less than 35% of players with a controller seems likely, considering that not every player from first category is regular active user. And from the same link only 10-15% controller sessions with multiple controllers. So maybe 3-4% with multiple controllers. Although actual number with multiple controllers might be slightly higher compared to session percentage, since many games act buggy with multiple controllers, so it's not uncommon to disconnect all the extra controllers while playing single player games. From the controller friendly (but also keyboard friendly) PC games I have worked on, 10-30% of players using controller seems reasonable number. It very much depends on how you define majority. Considering that 4/5 most played games on steam based on current player count are FPS (which on PC are almost exclusively played with mouse and keyboard), not surprising that the "daily gaming session" 10% number is skewed more towards the lower range of estimate. If you exclude FPS numbers are better but even then it's far from majority of PC gamers.

Fire-Dragon-DoL 3y ago
Interesting, thank you for finding that looks like I misremembered. I would exclude rts and fps for the simple fact that those are made with mouse in mind on pc, but fps is challenging because they do work well with controllers on split screen (and you can't play an fps with just keyboard). I think the good answer is in the stats, 35% of players connected a controller, that's a lot of controllers. There might be more, there might be some with multiple. But it's a chicken-egg problem. People don't have multiple controllers because they don't make split screen games anymore, most of them require multiple consoles/pcs. I follow the genre a lot since I want to play with my wife and my friends. It's mostly indie games with the exception of bg3/divinity original sin.

helboi4 3y ago

That does not sound accurate at all. I've rarely seen a PC gamer use a controller. In fact for many types of games mice are preferable. There's a few genres where controllers are always better but I find that's not the bulk of what PC gamers play anyway.

Fire-Dragon-DoL 3y ago
That's anecdotal
- mr_briggs 3y ago
  It would be quite amusing if only the majority of 'steam users that provide feedback' are controller users, while most MKB users don't provide feedback.
  - Fire-Dragon-DoL 3y ago
    I feel like I know you, lol
- helboi4 3y ago
  Sure but like... anyone in the PC gaming community would confirm. I used to read PC Gamer magazine a lot when I was younger, watch constant PC gaming setup videos, all of them included mice and keyboards. Almost none of them included controllers. I think there's a bias to the data used in your claim. My claim is not anecdotal based on just my own personal experience. It's based on my experience and about any content you can find about PC gaming out there.
  - Fire-Dragon-DoL 3y ago
    I'm a PC gamer, have 8 controllers and have done none of the things you listed, except learning how to build a PC. I'm not saying it can't be like you described, but observation from your point of view (your life) is not a valid statistic. Steam stats covers a lot of pc gamers, so we can and should be relying on that. 130M pc gamers is more than we can ever observe in life, and at least 48M of them have controllers

Hikikomori 3y ago

Most might have a controller and use one for some games, doesn't mean that most players always use one.