Gamepad

Baseline Widely available

This feature is well established and works across many devices and browser versions. It’s been available across browsers since March 2017.

Secure context: This feature is available only in secure contexts (HTTPS), in some or all supporting browsers.

The Gamepad interface of the Gamepad API defines an individual gamepad or other controller, allowing access to information such as button presses, axis positions, and id.

A Gamepad object can be returned in one of two ways: via the gamepad property of the gamepadconnected and gamepaddisconnected events, or by grabbing any position in the array returned by the Navigator.getGamepads() method.

Note: The support of gamepad features varies across different combinations of platforms and controllers. Even if the controller supports a certain feature (for example, haptic feedback), the platform may not support it for that controller.

Instance properties

Gamepad.axes Read only

An array representing the controls with axes present on the device (e.g. analog thumb sticks).

Gamepad.buttons Read only

An array of gamepadButton objects representing the buttons present on the device.

Gamepad.connected Read only

A boolean indicating whether the gamepad is still connected to the system.

Gamepad.displayId Read only

Returns the VRDisplay.displayId of an associated VRDisplay (if relevant) — the VRDisplay that the gamepad is controlling the displayed scene of.

Gamepad.hand Read only

An enum defining what hand the controller is being held in, or is most likely to be held in.

Gamepad.hapticActuators Read only

An array containing GamepadHapticActuator objects, each of which represents haptic feedback hardware available on the controller.

Gamepad.vibrationActuator Read only

A GamepadHapticActuator object, which represents haptic feedback hardware available on the controller.

Gamepad.id Read only

A string containing identifying information about the controller.

Gamepad.index Read only

An integer that is auto-incremented to be unique for each device currently connected to the system.

Gamepad.mapping Read only

A string indicating whether the browser has remapped the controls on the device to a known layout.

Gamepad.pose Read only

A GamepadPose object representing the pose information associated with a WebVR controller (e.g. its position and orientation in 3D space).

Gamepad.timestamp Read only

A DOMHighResTimeStamp representing the last time the data for this gamepad was updated.

Example

js
window.addEventListener("gamepadconnected", (e) => {
  console.log(
    "Gamepad connected at index %d: %s. %d buttons, %d axes.",
    e.gamepad.index,
    e.gamepad.id,
    e.gamepad.buttons.length,
    e.gamepad.axes.length,
  );
});

Specifications

Specification
Gamepad
# gamepad-interface
Gamepad Extensions
# partial-gamepad-interface

Browser compatibility

BCD tables only load in the browser

See also