97% of Far Cry New Dawn players left subtitles on when the game shipped them enabled by default, while only about 60% of Assassin’s Creed Origins players switched them on when it did not — the single clearest measurement in game accessibility, and it is about defaults, not disability. Around half of Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 players opened the accessibility settings menu, developers had filled in Steam’s accessibility questionnaire for more than 22,000 apps by January 2026, and one third of developers say they are building accessibility features into their next title. The figures below come from Ian Hamilton’s collected industry telemetry, the GDC 2026 State of the Game Industry survey, Valve’s Steamworks announcements, the WHO, the Entertainment Software Association, the FCC, EU Directive 2019/882, and first-party publications from Microsoft, Sony, Ubisoft, and Logitech.
TL;DR
- 97% of Far Cry New Dawn players kept subtitles on when they were enabled by default; 95% did in Assassin’s Creed Odyssey (Ubisoft, via Ian Hamilton)
- Only around 60% turned subtitles on in Assassin’s Creed Origins, where they shipped off by default (Ubisoft, via Ian Hamilton)
- Around half of Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 players opened the accessibility settings menu (Activision)
- More than 40% of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II players customised their analog stick deadzone (Activision, via Ian Hamilton)
- Over 250,000 Madden 22 players used colourblind settings (EA, via Ian Hamilton)
- Around 30% of players in the US and the UK identify as disabled (Newzoo, via Ian Hamilton)
- 1.3 billion people, 16% of the world population, live with a significant disability (WHO)
- 33% of surveyed developers are building accessibility features into their next game (GDC 2026)
- Basic input remapping is the most common feature at 65%, but full input remapping reaches only 37% (GDC 2026)
- Developers completed Steam’s accessibility questionnaire for 22,000+ apps and games by January 2026, up from 5,000+ in July 2025 (Valve)
- The Accessible Games Initiative launched March 20, 2025 with 24 tags across four categories (ESA)
- 212.3 million Americans play video games, and 74% of US adults agree games provide accessible experiences (ESA 2026)
- The Xbox Adaptive Controller is $99.99 and Sony’s Access Controller is $89.99; a QuadStick FPS starts at $549.00
- US games released from January 1, 2019 must make in-game chat accessible under the CVAA; the EU’s Accessibility Act has applied since June 28, 2025
1. The Audience: Around 30% of Players, Not a Niche
Prevalence is measured; the disabled gaming audience is estimated. Newzoo’s gamer sentiment work puts around 30% of players in the US and the UK as identifying as disabled, which Ian Hamilton flags as the most consistent finding across survey years.
The number the industry repeats is weaker. Xbox and the Accessible Games Initiative both cite “more than 429 million players with some form of disability” without attaching a study, a sample, or a definition of disability. It works as a scale marker and deserves the caveat every time.
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| People worldwide living with a significant disability | 1.3 billion, or 16% of the global population | World Health Organization |
| Players in the US and the UK who identify as disabled | Around 30% | Newzoo, via Ian Hamilton |
| Candy Crush players who identify as disabled | 38% | King, via Ian Hamilton |
| Candy Crush disabled players compared with other players | 12-19% more hours and 5-9% more active days | King, via Ian Hamilton |
| Americans who play video games | 212.3 million, average age 37 | ESA 2026 Essential Facts |
| US adults who agree games provide accessible experiences for people with different abilities | 74% | ESA 2026 Essential Facts |
| People requiring rehabilitation for disabling hearing loss (over 35 dB in the better ear) | 430 million, including 34 million children | World Health Organization |
| Prevalence of colour vision deficiency | About 1 in 12 men (8%) and 1 in 200 women, roughly 300 million people | Colour Blind Awareness |
Communication impairments and assistive speech tools connect to our speech therapy statistics. Source: Ian Hamilton, Game accessibility data.
2. What Developers Are Building: The 2026 Survey
The GDC State of the Game Industry survey asks developers which accessibility features they are working on, or know are being implemented, for their next game. One third — 33% — answered that they are working on accessibility features at all, on a question that drew 425 respondents.
The ranking inside that third is the useful part. Cheap, well-understood options cluster at the top, and the gap between basic input remapping at 65% and full input remapping at 37% marks where implementation cost starts to bite. The tail runs down to 8% for playable without touch controls.
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Developers working on accessibility features for their next game | 33% | GDC 2026 State of the Game Industry |
| Basic input remapping | 65% | GDC 2026 State of the Game Industry |
| Color alternatives | 58% | GDC 2026 State of the Game Industry |
| Large and clear subtitles | 52% | GDC 2026 State of the Game Industry |
| Multiple volume controls | 52% | GDC 2026 State of the Game Industry |
| Clear text | 50% | GDC 2026 State of the Game Industry |
| Difficulty levels | 49% | GDC 2026 State of the Game Industry |
| Large text, camera comfort, and full input remapping | 45%, 41%, and 37% | GDC 2026 State of the Game Industry |
Source: GDC 2026 State of the Game Industry.
3. Subtitles: The Default Decides Everything
This is the cleanest natural experiment in the industry, and eight shipped titles report the same result. Ship subtitles off by default and roughly 60% of players turn them on; ship them on by default and 95% to 97% leave them there.
The gap is not a measure of hearing loss. It is a measure of how few players ever open a settings menu, which is why the default is the decision that matters and every downstream tuning choice is secondary.
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Assassin’s Creed Origins (2017), subtitles off by default | Around 60% of players turned them on | Ubisoft, via Ian Hamilton |
| The Last of Us Part II (2020), subtitles off by default | 63% of players enabled them | Naughty Dog, via Ian Hamilton |
| Assassin’s Creed Odyssey (2018), subtitles on by default | Around 95% left them on | Ubisoft, via Ian Hamilton |
| Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga (2022) and Sniper Elite 5 (2022), on by default | 95% left them on | Via Ian Hamilton |
| Far Cry New Dawn (2019), subtitles on by default | 97% left them on | Ubisoft, via Ian Hamilton |
| Guardians of the Galaxy (2021) and Zombie Army 4 (2020), on by default | 97% left them on | Via Ian Hamilton |
| Zombie Army 4 players who increased subtitle text size | 15% | Rebellion, via Ian Hamilton |
| The Last Door (2016) players who finished the game with sound captions enabled | 12% | The Game Kitchen, via Ian Hamilton |
Caption behaviour across media connects to our captions and subtitles statistics. Source: Accessibility at Ubisoft.
4. Accessibility Settings Are a Mainstream Feature
Studios that publish usage data keep finding the same thing: accessibility options get used by the whole playerbase. Activision reports that around half of Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 players opened the accessibility settings menu.
The pattern repeats across genres and vendors. More than 40% of Modern Warfare II players tuned their analog stick deadzone, over 250,000 Madden 22 players switched on colourblind settings, and in Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown only 44% of players stayed on the default difficulty.
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 (2024) players who opened the accessibility settings menu | Around half | Activision |
| Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II (2022) players who customised analog stick deadzone | More than 40% | Activision, via Ian Hamilton |
| Madden 22 (2021) players who used colourblind settings | Over 250,000 | EA, via Ian Hamilton |
| Sniper Elite 5 (2022) players who increased text size | 35% | Rebellion, via Ian Hamilton |
| Atomfall (2024) players who modified controller schemes | Over 100,000 | Rebellion, via Ian Hamilton |
| Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown (2024) difficulty split | Rookie 19%, Warrior 44%, Hero 15%, Immortal 3%, Custom 19% | Ubisoft, via Ian Hamilton |
| Zombie Army 4 (2020) players who used auto-reload | 99% | Rebellion, via Ian Hamilton |
| Into The Dead: share of the playerbase using an alternative input method | About 75%, spread evenly across four options | PikPok, via Ian Hamilton |
Source: Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 Accessibility Updates and New Features.
5. Store Tags: From 325 Products to 22,000 in Five Years
Discoverability moved faster than implementation. Steam went from 5,000+ apps with a completed accessibility questionnaire in July 2025 to more than 22,000 by January 2026 — a fourfold jump in six months.
The standard consolidated in the same window. Microsoft ran its own 20-tag system from November 2021, then replaced it with the ESA’s 24-tag Accessible Games Initiative, which launched at GDC on March 20, 2025 with EA, Google, Microsoft, Nintendo of America, and Ubisoft as founding members and Sony Interactive Entertainment involved in its development.
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Xbox Game Accessibility Feature Tags at launch | 20 tags, 325+ tagged products (November 16, 2021) | Xbox Wire |
| Accessible Games Initiative launch | 24 tags across four categories (March 20, 2025) | Entertainment Software Association |
| AGI founding members | EA, Google, Microsoft, Nintendo of America, Ubisoft, plus Sony Interactive Entertainment | Entertainment Software Association |
| Later AGI members | Amazon Games, Riot Games, Square Enix, Warner Bros. Games | Entertainment Software Association |
| AGI tags across Xbox store surfaces | More than 4,000 (July 9, 2025) | Xbox Wire |
| Steam accessibility questionnaire | 18 features across gameplay, audio, visual, and input | Steamworks |
| Steam apps with completed questionnaire, July 2025 | More than 5,000 | Valve |
| Steam apps with completed questionnaire, January 2026 | More than 22,000 | Valve |
Screen reader support is the thinnest of these categories — see our screen reader statistics. Source: Steamworks Accessibility Features documentation.
6. Adaptive Hardware: What a Setup Actually Costs
First-party hubs are the cheap part. The Xbox Adaptive Controller is $99.99 and Sony’s Access Controller is $89.99, but neither ships with the switches, pedals, or joysticks a player plugs into it.
The real spread sits in the peripherals. Logitech’s Adaptive Gaming Kit adds 12 buttons and triggers for $99.99, while a mouth-operated QuadStick FPS starts at $549.00 and climbs with a $100 Bluetooth module. Free assessment services close part of that gap: SpecialEffect, founded in 2007, builds and loans personalised setups at no charge to the player.
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Xbox Adaptive Controller | $99.99 (launched 2018) | Microsoft |
| PlayStation Access Controller | $89.99 / £79.99 / €89.99, global launch December 6, 2023 | PlayStation Blog |
| Logitech G Adaptive Gaming Kit | $99.99 for 12 buttons and triggers: 3 large, 3 small, 2 variable triggers, 4 light touch | Logitech |
| QuadStick FPS mouth controller | From $549.00, plus $100 for Bluetooth and $25 for multi-user config | QuadStick |
| Entry adaptive console setup (Xbox Adaptive Controller plus Logitech kit) | $199.98 | Derived |
| Sip-and-puff setup (Xbox Adaptive Controller plus QuadStick FPS with Bluetooth) | $748.99 | Derived |
| SpecialEffect cost to the player | £0 — assessment, setup, loan, and lifelong support are free | SpecialEffect |
| AbleGamers Accessible Player Experiences programme | 154-player demographic survey behind the design patterns; 16-hour certification course; 1,135 training hours and $263,800 in scholarships delivered | AbleGamers / Beeston et al., ICCHP 2018 |
Peripheral pricing sits alongside our PC gaming hardware statistics. Source: PlayStation Blog: Access controller launches December 6.
7. Law, Standards, and Recognition
Two legal regimes now apply, and only one of them is old news. US games released from January 1, 2019 must make in-game voice and text chat accessible, because the video game industry’s FCC waiver expired on December 31, 2018 and was explicitly the final extension.
Europe is the live front. The European Accessibility Act has applied since June 28, 2025; it never names video games, but it covers e-commerce and communication services, which is what in-game stores and chat are. Alongside the law, The Game Awards has run an Innovation in Accessibility category every year since 2020.
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| CVAA signed into law | October 8, 2010 | Federal Communications Commission |
| Video game industry ACS waiver expiry | December 31, 2018, explicitly the final extension | FCC Order DA 17-1243 |
| Games covered by CVAA chat rules | Released on or after January 1, 2019, plus older games that undergo substantial upgrades | Frankfurt Kurnit Klein & Selz |
| European Accessibility Act key dates | Published June 7, 2019; transposition June 28, 2022; application June 28, 2025; legacy services June 28, 2030 | EUR-Lex |
| Xbox Accessibility Guidelines current version | Version 3.2, published June 8, 2023 | Microsoft Learn |
| Innovation in Accessibility winners, 2020-2022 | The Last of Us Part II, Forza Horizon 5, God of War Ragnarok | The Game Awards |
| Innovation in Accessibility winners, 2023-2025 | Forza Motorsport, Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown, DOOM: The Dark Ages | The Game Awards |
| The Last of Us Part II accessibility settings | More than 60, plus 3 presets and 5 difficulty levels | Naughty Dog / PlayStation Blog |
Workforce inclusion behind these mandates connects to our disability employment statistics. Source: FCC: 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act.
Summary: Game Accessibility by the Numbers
| Metric | Value | Primary Source |
|---|---|---|
| Far Cry New Dawn players keeping default-on subtitles | 97% | Ubisoft, via Ian Hamilton |
| Assassin’s Creed Odyssey players keeping default-on subtitles | 95% | Ubisoft, via Ian Hamilton |
| Assassin’s Creed Origins players opting into subtitles | Around 60% | Ubisoft, via Ian Hamilton |
| The Last of Us Part II players opting into subtitles | 63% | Naughty Dog, via Ian Hamilton |
| Black Ops 6 players who opened the accessibility menu | Around half | Activision |
| Modern Warfare II players who tuned analog deadzone | More than 40% | Activision, via Ian Hamilton |
| Madden 22 players using colourblind settings | Over 250,000 | EA, via Ian Hamilton |
| Sniper Elite 5 players who increased text size | 35% | Rebellion, via Ian Hamilton |
| Players in the US and UK who identify as disabled | Around 30% | Newzoo, via Ian Hamilton |
| People with a significant disability worldwide | 1.3 billion (16%) | WHO |
| People requiring hearing rehabilitation | 430 million | WHO |
| People with colour vision deficiency | About 300 million | Colour Blind Awareness |
| Americans who play video games | 212.3 million, average age 37 | ESA 2026 |
| US adults agreeing games provide accessible experiences | 74% | ESA 2026 |
| Developers building accessibility features | 33% | GDC 2026 |
| Basic input remapping | 65% | GDC 2026 |
| Full input remapping | 37% | GDC 2026 |
| Steam apps with accessibility data, January 2026 | 22,000+ | Valve |
| Accessible Games Initiative tags | 24, launched March 20, 2025 | ESA |
| Xbox Adaptive Controller / PlayStation Access Controller | $99.99 / $89.99 | Microsoft / PlayStation |
| QuadStick FPS mouth controller | From $549.00 | QuadStick |
| CVAA chat rules apply to games released from | January 1, 2019 | FCC |
| European Accessibility Act application date | June 28, 2025 | EUR-Lex |
Methodology and Sources
Every figure here is traced to a primary publisher or to Ian Hamilton’s collected industry data, which links each entry to the studio, talk, or article it came from. Health prevalence comes from the World Health Organization, developer intent from the GDC 2026 State of the Game Industry survey, storefront adoption from Valve’s and Microsoft’s own announcements, tag standards from the Entertainment Software Association, hardware pricing from manufacturer listings, and legal dates from the FCC and EUR-Lex.
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Ian Hamilton, Game accessibility data: the industry’s standing collection of shipped-title accessibility telemetry, each entry linked to its studio source (subtitle default rates across eight titles, deadzone and colourblind and text-size usage, difficulty splits, the Newzoo disabled-player share, the Candy Crush figures).
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Activision: Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 Accessibility Updates and New Features (around half of players open the accessibility settings menu).
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Ubisoft: Accessibility at Ubisoft — Making Games For Everyone (60% subtitle opt-in in Assassin’s Creed Origins), with the 2026 tag rollout reported by Can I Play That?.
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World Health Organization: Disability fact sheet (1.3 billion with significant disability, 16%, as of the 7 March 2023 revision) and Deafness and hearing loss fact sheet (430 million requiring hearing rehabilitation including 34 million children, as of the 3 March 2026 revision).
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Colour Blind Awareness: About Colour Blindness (1 in 12 men, 1 in 200 women, roughly 300 million worldwide).
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Entertainment Software Association: 2026 Essential Facts About the U.S. Video Game Industry (212.3 million players, average age 37, 74% agree games provide accessible experiences) and the Accessible Games Initiative announcement (24 tags, March 20, 2025, founding members), plus the AGI Tags Usage Guidance, v09.30.2025 (four tag categories, subtitle criteria).
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GDC / Informa: 2026 State of the Game Industry and the GDC summary article (33% building accessibility features; 65% basic input remapping, 58% color alternatives, 52% large and clear subtitles, 52% multiple volume controls, 50% clear text, 49% difficulty levels, 45% large text, 41% camera comfort, 37% full input remapping; 2,300+ total respondents, 425 on the accessibility question).
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Valve: Steamworks Accessibility Features documentation (18 features across four categories) and the Showing Accessibility support for your games on Steam announcement (5,000+ apps, July 2025), with the January 2026 update reported by Can I Play That? (22,000+ apps, plus the new “Playable at Your Own Pace”, “Contrast Controls”, and “Playable without Vision” tags).
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Microsoft / Xbox: Game Accessibility Feature Tags launch (20 tags, 325+ products, November 16, 2021), Accessible Games Initiative tags across Xbox (4,000+ tags, the 429 million citation), and the Xbox Accessibility Guidelines (version 3.2, June 8, 2023).
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Hardware pricing: PlayStation Blog Access controller announcement ($89.99, December 6, 2023), the Logitech G Adaptive Gaming Kit press release ($99.99, 12 buttons and triggers), and the QuadStick FPS store listing (from $549.00).
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Charities and research: SpecialEffect (founded 2007, free personalised setups and lifelong support) and AbleGamers Accessible Player Experiences (16-hour certification course; 130 DPAD scholarships, 1,135 training hours, $263,800 awarded) with the underlying study, Beeston, Power, Cairns and Barlet, “Accessible Player Experiences (APX): The Players”, ICCHP 2018 (demographic survey of 154 players with disabilities from the AbleGamers Player Panels).
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Legal and recognition: the FCC CVAA consumer guide (signed October 8, 2010; ACS definitions), the FCC order granting the final ESA class waiver, DA 17-1243 (released December 26, 2017, CG Docket No. 10-213), Frankfurt Kurnit Klein & Selz on what that means for publishers, Directive (EU) 2019/882, The Game Awards Innovation in Accessibility, and The Last of Us Part II accessibility features detailed.
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Data watch: Ian Hamilton’s collection is a curated aggregation, not a single dataset — each entry links to the studio talk, blog post, or social post it came from, and the underlying disclosures span 2016 to 2025, so treat the subtitle table as a pattern across eight titles rather than one measurement. The Newzoo disabled-player share is reported as “around 30%” for both the US and the UK by Hamilton; other retellings of the same study split it as 31% US and 29% UK, and one as 30% US and 20% UK, so the exact split is unsettled even though the order of magnitude is not. The 429 million figure that Xbox and the Accessible Games Initiative use has no published methodology, sample, or definition of disability behind it, and appears here only as an industry citation. The GDC 2026 percentages describe what developers say they are building for their next game — stated intent, not an audit of shipped games — and that question drew 425 of the survey’s 2,300+ respondents. Steam and Xbox tag counts are developer self-declarations, not independent verification. Derived rows are our own arithmetic on listed retail prices, not vendor bundles; prices are US list prices and exclude tax, shipping, mounting hardware, and regional variation.
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Last updated: August 25, 2026. This roundup is updated quarterly as GDC survey waves, storefront tag counts, WHO fact sheet revisions, and new studio telemetry disclosures are published.