Valve's end-of-year lists just keep on coming: it has followed up its round-up of the 100 best-selling Steam games (opens in new tab) with a post on the most controller-friendly games in 2018, broken down by controller type.
For each device—Xbox (opens in new tab), PlayStation (opens in new tab), Switch Pro (opens in new tab) or Steam controller (opens in new tab)—it lists the 50 games that were played most with that controller, the games that were uniquely popular with each controller type, and the games that used each controller most in local multiplayer.
Lots of players are using a PlayStation controller to play PUBG (opens in new tab), judging by its top 50 (opens in new tab). Rainbow Six Siege (opens in new tab) also ranks highly for both PlayStation and Xbox controllers (opens in new tab), suggesting some players are willing to sacrifice aim for the comfort of, presumably, playing on a sofa with the game running on their TV. Or maybe they're just better with a controller—who knows? Other than that, the top games are what you'd expect. You'll find a mixture of platformers, sports games, fighting games, RPGs and action games. You can find all the links in this Steam post (opens in new tab).
The unique games for each controller—those favored specifically by players with one controller over another—are more interesting. PlayStation controllers are the device of choice for fighting games, with Soulcalibur 6 (opens in new tab), BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle and Street Fighter 5 (opens in new tab) making the list.
Xbox controller owners are particularly fond of open-world games, with the likes of Just Cause 3, Saints Row 4, Skyrim (opens in new tab) and Mafia 3 among the list of games that are most unique to the device. Switch Pro controller fans like A Hat in Time, The Messenger and Monster Hunter: World (opens in new tab), while Steam controller users are taking advantage of its dual trackpads, favoring strategy games such as Stellaris (opens in new tab), Civilisation 6 and BattleTech (opens in new tab).
Valve reckons these preferences point to both a difference in demographics between owners of the respective controllers and a differing level of support for specific controllers between games.
Lastly, couch multiplayer fans might want to cast their eye over the lists of games played most with two controllers on one PC. It's full of fun party games such as Gang Beasts and Ultimate Chicken Horse (opens in new tab). I'm pleased to see Divinity: Original Sin 2 (opens in new tab) popular across all controllers, too: it's not the first game that springs to mind when I think of local multiplayer, but its RPG campaign is brilliant when played co-op, so it makes sense.
Once again, you can find links to all the lists here (opens in new tab). They're worth browsing if you like playing with a controller and you're looking for new compatible games.
