Video Game Controller Trend Shows Worrying Knob Propensity
Before I go any further: yes, I only used the word knob in the title because it sounds good. Actually, this post is about buttons. But buttons aren’t funny. Hence, knob.
We took the list of best-selling video game consoles, and plotted the number of buttons on the controller/joystick from each console against the year it was released. The number of buttons does not include d-pads, clickable analog sticks or switches, but does include all other buttons, shoulder buttons and triggers.
As is clearly evident, apart from a spike in the early 1980s when a few of the consoles had hideously ugly telephone-style controllers, the trend from the mid 1980s to date shows a gradual increase in the number of buttons; even the ‘family friendly’ Wii controller has eight of the damn things on it.
When will the madness end?
Source data
| Console | Year | Buttons |
| Atari 2600 | 1977 | 1 |
| Intellivision | 1980 | 14 |
| ColecoVision | 1982 | 14 |
| Atari 5200 | 1982 | 17 |
| NES / Famicom | 1983 | 4 |
| Sega Master System | 1985 | 2 |
| Atari 7800 | 1986 | 2 |
| TurboGrafx-16 | 1987 | 4 |
| Sega Mega Drive / Genesis | 1989 | 4 |
| Neo-Geo | 1990 | 6 |
| SNES / Super Famicom | 1991 | 8 |
| 3DO | 1993 | 5 |
| Sega Saturn | 1994 | 9 |
| PlayStation | 1994 | 10 |
| Nintendo 64 | 1996 | 8 |
| Sega Dreamcast | 1998 | 7 |
| PlayStation 2 | 2000 | 11 |
| Nintendo GameCube | 2001 | 8 |
| Xbox | 2001 | 10 |
| Xbox 360 | 2005 | 11 |
| Nintendo Wii | 2006 | 8 |
| Playstation 3 | 2006 | 11 |
