Steam’s annual review gives players interesting insights, including how many are using a controller over keyboard and mouse.
There are a lot of potential variables in PC gaming, but for gamers who prefer it as their system of choice, that’s part of the fun. Customizing one’s graphical and processing capabilities, accessories, and even input method is all up to the player, allowing for a fair amount of freedom in comparison to the average home gaming console.
Even though these options are available to the majority of PC gamers, it seems there are still some conventions that hold true among them. A recent reveal from Steam, one of the leading PC gaming platforms, shows that just 10% of Steam users are relying upon game controllers to play.
In the Steam Year of Review for 2021, some interesting data regarding controllers was shared. According to Steam, as noted previously, the vast majority of PC gamers are opting to use a keyboard and mouse rather than a game controller. That’s not to say that they don’t own game controllers, though. Steam noted that 48 million game controllers are registered by users with Steam. However, that’s still only a fraction of Steam’s active playerbase, as Steam indicated that it had 132 million players who were active each month.
Of course, controller usage is heavily influenced by the kind of game the player is partaking in. Steam noted elsewhere that 70% of fighting game sessions are played with a controller, while a whopping 90% of racing and skating games are. While controllers or fight sticks are often considered the norm for fighting games, many others require numerous complex inputs that can be easier to make on a keyboard or mouse. Others prefer the ability to do things like build macros on dedicated keys, allowing them to perform multiple actions on the fly. While these options are often available for controllers, there are fewer buttons overall, making a keyboard or gaming mouse the preferable choice.
While having more choices isn’t a bad thing, the difference between controller usage on PC and game consoles is significant. This is one of the things leading to a gameplay dissonance when games with cross-play allow PC and console gamers to join in together. Although both gaming input conventions have pros and cons, if the vast majority of PC gamers are using a keyboard and mouse, there are bound to be moments where consoles or PCs have an edge over the other.
Although a significant amount of players have at least registered controllers, even if they’re not actively using them, this perhaps underscores why the Steam Controller ultimately failed. While the device was praised for bringing some of the best control elements of the mouse to the controller, it seems PC gamers ultimately prefer using the classic PC input method instead.
MORE: The Steam Deck May Be Most Beneficial to Fighting Game Tournaments
Source: Steam
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Sarah Fields (950 Articles Published)
Sarah is an old-school gamer, and has been an editor and contributor for Game Rant since 2015. Sarah was introduced to the world of gaming via the Atari and original Game Boy. After meeting her first Chocobo in Final Fantasy Adventure, she never looked back. Sarah majored in game design in college and utilizes that knowledge to analyze games for her written content for the site.
