The right gaming peripherals can make a big difference in the gaming experience, and as the market share of PC games continues to grow, the player data on keyboards, mice, and controllers has changed considerably in recent years. This year, Steam's online player peak exceeded 36 million, and a significant number of them use controllers.
The full stats released by Steam a few days ago are as follows:
Since 2018, average daily controller usage has tripled, from about 5% to 15%;
Of these, about 42% of controller sessions use Steam input;
During this time, the controller usage landscape has also changed:
59% of sessions use an Xbox controller;
26% are PlayStation controllers;
10%使用了Steam Deck。
For a long time in the past, the icon of the controller was used to represent the game. Originally, this was exclusive to console devices, but with the increase in PC gamers and the need for a more comfortable gaming experience, more and more PC users are using controllers. As gaming peripherals, keyboards, mice, and controllers also have their own advantages and disadvantages.
Keyboards and mice tend to be able to perform more granular operations, and they react faster when the demands of the game require you to refine to a certain point. FPS games, MOBA games, RTS games and other genres, the experience of using a keyboard and mouse will be better, which is determined by the device attributes.
Controllers, on the other hand, provide more feedback from the game, and perform better when playing action games. In addition, the controller can free the player from the table, allowing the player to play for long periods of time in a more comfortable position. At present, many shooting games will even add bonuses to controller users because of the existence of self-aiming.
Seeing this, some people may be surprised by the huge market share of the Xbox controller, and don't know the reason why it is so different from the PS controller. In fact, as early as 2018, Xbox was overpowering PS in the Steam player base. The reason is not product reasons such as operation feel and quality, but adaptability.
The Windows system is very compatible with the Xbox controller, so Steam users generally choose the Xbox controller to experience the game. In 2018, Xbox One and Xbox 360 controllers accounted for 64%, and PS controllers accounted for 27%. From this point of view, the proportion of users of PS controllers has increased in the past three years.
And as the popularity of the Steam Deck handheld has increased, the popularity of this first-party product has also increased, and in some cases it has served as a controller. It is foreseeable that the users of Steam's handle party will continue to improve in the future.
I don't know if you prefer to use a controller or a keyboard and mouse when you usually play games?