How to use your own controllers to play Google Stadia
The free tier of Google Stadia launched back in 2020, so access to Google’s cloud game streaming service is readily available to a wide range of people across a list of countries. If you want to try it out yourself but don’t feel like ponying-up the $69 for the official Stadia Controller, you thankfully don’t need to let that stop you.
You can, of course, buy one from Google if you choose to. And if you want to play wirelessly on the Chromecast Ultra, the company’s Stadia Controller is currently your only option to do that. But on PC and mobile, the service also works wirelessly with most popular console gaming controllers, including the Xbox Series X / S controller and the PlayStation 4’s DualShock 4 controller. Even controllers dating back to the Xbox 360 will work.
For the most part, the wired and wireless controller support in Stadia is good, though not perfect. For instance, Stadia has support for some wireless controllers, but others might need to be physically plugged in to work as intended. And whether it works wirelessly or not might come down to which device you’re playing on: a Windows 10 / Windows 11 / Linux / macOS PC running Google Chrome or one of the few supported devices running Android 10 or later.
It’s all a little complicated, but below, we try to make it easy with some steps to get popular controllers connected to Stadia on any device that is supported.
Related
Sony’s aging controller for the PlayStation 4 works wired or when connected via Bluetooth with your computer running Google Chrome (version 77 or greater). This controller also works with phones running Android 10 or later in wired or Bluetooth mode. Sadly, the newer PlayStation 5 DualSense controller does not share this Stadia
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