783 dancefloors are connected to Steam (and more data)

Valve Software does not just distribute games and create digital hats. He also follows how his Steam members interact with their software. In recent years, the company has examined which controllers and joysticks players have connected to their PCs. Using this data, the company has some ideas. For example, Steam has 783 registered dance floor controllers.

The biggest advantage is that most people are looking for a console controller when they want a PC gamepad. More than 30 million Steam users have connected a controller. The vast majority of them come from Xbox and PlayStation consoles.

Above: it's a lot of controllers.

Image credit: Steam

This is an instant reminder that, for many people, the PC does not always concern the keyboard and the mouse.

"Since 2015, more than 30 million players have registered at least one controller," reads a blog Steam on the subject. "And more than 15 million of these players have recorded more than one. Between two accounts with multiple controllers and controllers registered on multiple accounts, we found that a total of 60 million pairs of device accounts have been connected to Steam. "

Console controllers can represent tens of millions of Steam controllers, but the other category still contains 4.9 million devices. This includes more than 1.5 million steam controllers, 460,000 Switch Pro controllers and 315,000 fights.

Xbox and PlayStation controllers

Although console controllers are the most popular, Valve says that Xbox game controllers are the "default". They are by far the biggest piece of the cake.

"Nearly 40 million Xbox 360 and Xbox One controllers have been connected to Steam, accounting for 64 percent of all controllers," says the Steam blog. "Ten years ago, Microsoft made a concerted effort to get XInput, the underlying protocol, adopted, and this work has resulted in extensive support for game developers. Because built-in support is essentially supported by XInput, an Xbox controller is a good way to play many different titles seamlessly.

But, surprisingly enough, more and more people have registered their DualShock 4 gamepad with Steam instead of the Xbox One controller. Steam has 12.2 million connected DS4s and 11.5 million Xbox One pads. This is probably due to the commercial success of the PS4.

"The reason we're surprised by 12 million people is that, historically, the PS4 controller has not been treated like a PC game controller," the blog says. "Integrated support is rare, so gamers turn to software that translates their PS4 controller's input to the Xbox controller's input."

This software often does not work well, though. Games can still display prompts for Xbox style buttons. Players must translate "press Y" to "press Triangle". Valve notes that the game time with the DS4 is much lower than that of the Xbox One pad.

Above: People can register their DualShock 4s, but they use their Xbox One pads a lot more.

Image credit: Steam

Switching and steam controllers

Switch is only a year and a half away and does not come with the Pro controller. Despite this, he conquered the users of Steam.

"The Switch Pro controller arrived in 2017 and the players immediately started to attach them to their PCs," reads the blog. "At the time, support was mainly limited to basic remapping of the Steam input. … In May 2018, an update of Steam enabled all the features of the device, added corresponding illustrations in the user interface and enhanced the overall experience. The result has been an acceleration of Switch Pro controller recordings.

Above: The adoption of Switch Pro has increased after the update.

Image credit: Steam

The Switch Pro controller is now the most popular gamepad on Steam.

And finally, the steam controller may not have the raw numbers, but the result is the number of games that users use it with.

"To date, we have sold 1.3 million steam controllers, but that's what interests us most," says the blog. "The Steam Controller community plays a more diverse selection of games than other types of controllers, interacting with nearly double the total number of titles compared to the nearest device. In addition, many of them are titles without built-in controller support.

Above: People have used Steam Controller with over 1,000 unique games.

Image credit: Steam

As far as the future is concerned, Valve wants to continue to do more to ensure extensive controller support. It indicates the movement commands as an example. Fans use it in games that did not support it originally. And many people swear by this method of seizure.

So, if new features come up, Valve wants Steam to support it. He also wants to facilitate the integration of developers and actors.