The Dualsense controller is arguably the most exciting aspect of the new 9th generation console, with its only real competition being the SSDs they both have. I really like the controller, with the exception of having a microphone in it which makes me uncomfortable. I think it looks great, the improved rumble and trigger tension both have potential to them (only realized so far in Astrobot) and it feels solid and comfortable when I hold it.

But I think it's doing something to my right hand.

I first noticed this when I was playing Maneater, a game where fighting pretty much involves jamming on buttons until the enemy died. I played a lot of it over the course of a weekend and was jamming on buttons a ton and I started developing pain in my right hand that felt like a muscle strain. This actually got kind of serious over the course of the next few days and it lingered when I wasn't playing games and made it a little painful to type and do other things. I have a long history of playing video games, including jamming on buttons, and it's never caused this kind of pain before, but I'm getting on in years and as anyone who gets a little older knows things in your body work perfectly until they don't. I wasn't sure what exactly caused it (the pain came on sort of gradually, and I lift weights, which can cause strain or muscle fatigue in a hand) and I decided to just monitor it and hope it would go away.

Over the next week or so it wasn't going away, instead it was lingering and maybe getting a bit worse and I started thinking about going to my doctor to get tested for carpal tunnel or whatever.

Then I stopped playing PS5 for a while. I wasn't even thinking about the controller or my hand, I was just focused on other games, and when my hand started feeling better I didn't connect it to the PS5 at all. I just figured whatever had happened was finally healing.

A couple days ago I went back to playing my PS5, and this morning I turned on Spider-Man Remastered to mess around in Manhattan, got into a couple brawls with some Magia goons, jammed on the buttons again (as you do in Spider-Man) and started feeling it in hand again.

I have no idea why the Dualsense would cause this and I'm honestly not even sure it is the Dualsense that's to blame. The controller feels very comfortable in my hand and it's not that different from a PS4 controller, which I've been using since the launch of that machine. It might be something to do with trigger tension or the shape of the thing or whatever. I haven't seen anyone else complaining about it so maybe it's just my hands and this device. Maybe it's just a coincidence (though I've played a bunch of other games on other controllers in the last couple weeks.) There's another possible explanation because I rarely drive a car and I had to drive for about 5 hours yesterday, so it could just relate to having held the wheel so long, but I'm officially worried. If I go to a doctor and say "this particular controller makes my hand hurt if I use it and the pain lingers" they'll say "then don't use that controller" and maybe I shouldn't, but I'll be super disappointed if I can't enjoy the Dualsense features because of some kind of weird ergonomic incompatibility. I've been excited about its potential and now I might miss out. I'm sure I can find some other controller to play PS5 games with (Dualshock 4 or some random third aprty thing) but it won't have the special rumble or trigger tension.

I don't know if anyone else has had the experience of a particular controller being painful to use, but why did it have to be the most exciting and innovative controller since the Wiimote?

Perhaps you’re merely exacerbating a workout injury?

@justin258: That's a possibility, though I don't recall feeling any particular pain while working out (though those injuries can pop up later) but I'm not sure why the Dualsense in particular would be exacerbating it. There are a lot of possibilities, but I think it might just be something about the way the controller fits in my hand. It's just strange because holding it feels perfectly comfortable.

I'm not old, but I get something similar when playing a lot of musical instruments in a new/different and awkward style (changing drum stick style, very thick bass picks, any classical instrument that may require a certain amount of tension to hold a bow etc). The answer is to experiment with different hand positions if it's an options and, of course if all else fails, stop playing that specific thing if there are no alternate ways to use the device.

If the tension from the triggers against the stillness of your pinky/ring finger holding the bottom of the pad is causing strain in the core part of your hand, if at all possible, turn off the trigger tension gimmick as it could be simple exhaustion and mild strain (hopefully!). See if your recurring strain goes away. If it does, it's not a big deal to keep playing your PS5 games without the new trigger gimmick as mildly disappointing as it may be right now.

If you're semi-certain it is the PS5 controller, after trying games without the trigger gimmick on, make sure it's not another design change that is causing/exacerbating your injury. It could be something as small as the way your pinky or ring finger grips the pad because they shaved a mm off somewhere, altered the angle/how the buttons sit, how your knuckles are sitting etc. Some people have major cramp and strain issues when playing Nintendo DS/3DS devices, and using triggers too often on those devices doesn't help, coincidentally enough.

I hope you find an answer and it's easily resolvable. As you're familiar with weights I know you'll be stretching your fingers, hands, and forearms properly when prepping to play right now, so look out for yourself. No game is worth an RSI.

Because you're not used to Xbox controller before getting your hands on Dualsense?

The new Xbox Series controller definitely makes my right hand feel pretty bad. I will just switch to an older Xbox One controller every time that happens. But that sucks for the Dualsense since you can't really just easily swap it out.

Sorry to hear about your issues. I actually also experienced a bit of hand strain when I started playing Maneater on PS5, but I assumed it was the controls - I don't often play games where the gameplay is mostly mashing R2. (And somehow, Maneater has 3 control layouts but all of them have attack on R2.....) Anyway I think I eventually found a way to hold it that felt better, because I finished the game in 2-3 days and didn't have any lingering pain. Other than that, I love the way DualSense feels.

I've seen some other people on the internet saying the DualSense is very uncomfortable for them.. I don't know if their hands are too big or they are holding it a weird way or what. I wish Sony had allowed people to use the DS4 for PS5 games. Yes people using DS4 will miss out on the haptics, but at least their hands won't hurt. (Possible workaround, if you have good internet, is to play your PS5 via Remote Play on PC)

I thought I was alone on this! I have relatively small hands and I find myself consciously thinking about the shoulder buttons and how I'm holding it in attempt to stay comfortable (something I almost never think about when gaming). I find the DualShock 4 and Xbox Series controllers more comfortable for extended use.

I wonder if it might also have to do with how dang heavy the DualSense is in comparison. According to this it's almost 2.5 oz heavier than the DualShock 4.

For me the solution has boiled down to taking more frequent breaks in my gaming sessions which I guess isn't the worst thing in the world.

Same here. Dual-Sense is not a very comfortable pad imo. I have a rather small hands, which is why Series X controller feels great. I also have Xbox Elite pad and it's fine. DS4 was alright, nothing mindblowing, but I wasn't thinking about it while playing - with DSense I have to move my hands a bit to adjust them and I feel my forearms getting tired after some time.

I appreciate all the advice. I think it's interesting that a lot of the people who've had issues say that the problem is that their hands are too small. I actually have kind of big hands and always hated the Dualshock because it felt tiny in them.

I don't think the issue is that the Dualsense is too large or heavy (I am one of the few, the proud, the ex-Windows Phone users who had a Lumia and really liked it), though that certainly may be the case for others.

After thinking about it more and playing around with my grip a bit, I think the issue may relate to my default grip being in a position where the triggers and shoulder buttons are too close to the knuckle on my index finger. I think this reduces leverage and combined with the haptics and games that require you to jam on those buttons may be causing the strain. Other controllers put the shoulder buttons and triggers a big closer to my fingertips, so I am going to try shifting my grip so that the triggers and shoulders are closer to the tips. But first I'm going to take a break from the PS5 for a bit to make sure that I'm fully healed up. I'll also try some of the stretches and exercises recommended here.

Thanks duders. I'll let everyone know if my hands cramp up and fall off the next time I try to swing around Manhattan.

I developed a repetitive stress injury with the PS4 controller. The joint at the very base of my thumb, where it meets my wrist, hurt like hell when I moved my thumbs. It was clearly a strain of some kind, but I didn't know why. I had purchased a PS4 a few months prior, and was using a PlayStation controller regularly for the first time in maybe 10 years. I had been playing lots of single-player adventure games, but I had no problem prior to the launch of Apex Legends. It started when Apex Legends launched, and persisted through Warzone's launch. When I switched to PC to play Warzone, and stopped playing Apex Legends altogether, it went away.

I ended up figuring out the problem for me: clicking in the PS4's joysticks was causing the problem. When run and melee are mapped to L3/R3, I am constantly clicking them, far more than in any other type of game by many magnitudes. The position of the sticks on this controller design is counterintuitive to my physiology for some reason. They're too low on the controller face, and they cause my thumbs to bend towards my body at a greater angle, making a half-circle "C" shape with my forefinger and thumbs. Applying repeated downward pressure with this position is unnatural for me.

I found out, though, that I'm not alone. I found a reddit thread in which someone described the exact same problem, and others responded with similar complaints. I was a day or two away from buying a SCUF controller so I could stop clicking in the sticks before I just switched to PC thanks to crossplay.

I found this video, and did these movements, and within a week, I was no longer in pain. Now I just know that I can't play FPS games for long periods of time on PS4.

And no, I have never had, and still do not have, this problem with an Xbox controller thumbstick layout.

@bigsocrates: Yeah that's a good plan.

As a fellow veteran gamer who has to monitor what he does, If the picture is accurate about how you hold it...Your grip looks way too high

I think if you slide your grip lower on the handles , your finger tips will be in a slightly better position for the triggers and you won't lose access to the face buttons. Your thumb in particular looks too horizontal to me, I tend to keep mine at about a 45 degree angle, mimicking the angle from the Square to the X button. Tip of my thumb on or just past the Square, flexing the knuckle to hit "X". I think you'll want the tip of the handle to resting in your palm if you can

Don't have a PS5, but what I describe is roughly how I hold a XSX controller (which I use on PC), little easier to do there as their handles are longer. I think there's enough real estate on the DS to do it there too tho

The thing does look too small in your hands tho, maybe worth considering getting a 3rd party pad if time off plus grip change don't work. Not ideal, but it's better than getting a RSI.

@slag: That's not my full natural grip because I was holding it with one hand, but yes I need to slide the grip lower on the handles. The issue is that I run out of horn if I do it that way, but the real problem is that the controller's "shoulders" are tilted in too much for me. I do better with a boxier controller that forces my wrists into a more natural position. I do intend to change my grip and see if that helps.

@bigsocrates: ah ok, that makes sense. Thought it might be the case, but figured I'd throw that out there in case that was actually how you hold it.

In any event, I hope your pain goes away. That's the worst man

These days I often try to rotate between RPGs and more mashy games to give my thumbs a break. If I really wanna mash like I used (In a quicktime event etc) I pretty take my whole hand off the controller and click on it more like a mouse

So I get what you're running into

I've never liked DualSense controllers. It's a matter of personal preference, but I vastly prefer the alternating thumbsticks of the Xbox controller, rather than both sticks being next to each other. Maybe this preference is a result of the GameCube being the first console I owned. Either way, DualSense controllers are not an insignificant factor in me choosing to use xbox as my primary console.

I beat Maneater on the ps5 and also ran into the same thing, the combat has you making a lot of awkward hand movements repetitively and I started getting hand strain from it too.

I also recently turned off vibrate on destiny 2, I use this gatling gun thing and the vibrate is intense and after a while the controller starts slipping out of my hand. I find it a bit harder to keep a grip on it than the ps4 controller, but I still like it overall.

Heavy button mashing games tend to wreck the tendon sheaths through friction. The lubricant that lets tendons glide free gets all sticky if you overdo your mashing, this gets worse with age. It is why breaks are very important.

I destroyed my left hand playing Terraria on a mouse and keyboard, using space bar to jump.. You jump a lot in that game, and I literally wrecked my left hand. RSI is no joke, it ends you. Button mashy games aren't for people above the age of 30. The risk of lasting injury grows with each year.

Once your hands go, so too does your life. Be careful..

@bigsocrates: I've been having the exact same issue with my right hand and wrist. I have always been an Xbox player, so when I had extra funds I decided to get the PS5 as well. My hands are kind of big so my hand sometimes sits uncomfortably on the controller (which is one reason I never bought a Playstation because the controller felt weird in hand). Ever since I've started playing spiderman, I have felt pain come in my right hand. This doesn't happen when I play my series x, so I think I need to find a better hand position when playing.

@digitaldiistort: Sorry you're going through that Duder. If it makes you feel any better I took a month off from PS5, my hand healed, and I've gone back to it without any serious problems.

I think the key was, as I said, trying to use my fingertips more and not letting the triggers ride up towards the crook of the finger. I've sort of pushed the controller up in my grip so my hands sit lower on it, and that has created a situation where I more naturally use my fingertips on the shoulders and triggers, and I haven't had additional pain. Don't know if that would work for you but maybe worth a shot? Though as others have said you want to be careful not to give yourself a serious or even permanent RSI.

Yooo exact same thing happened to me. Once I stopped playing on the PS5 a bit, the pain eventually lightened up. Never had that problem with the PS4. And I actually agree with OP that I never felt like the dual sense was particularly uncomfortable while I was using it, which was the strange thing. I’ll probably try to change my grip a bit the next time I start playing for longer sessions.

You're not alone- I don't find the Dualsense 5 very ergonomic/comfortable. The biggest issue for me are the triggers. I think the increase in size causes my fingers to wrap around the trigger in such a way that they're sitting on a hard edge. This is especially troublesome when adaptive triggers are on since I have to put even more force on the triggers. Xbox controllers have a rounded edge on the triggers making for a more natural throw and resting point for your index fingers.

I like that it’s bigger than the DS4, but it’s not as comfortable. They should’ve kept the DS4 form and just made it slightly larger.

I'm also in that camp - Dual Sense is one of the reasons I'm actively playing anything I can on my XSX, as my hands have a much harder time adjusting to DSense from DS4. Really waiting for some 3rd party alternatives, but they might be hard to come by.

I’m in a similar boat. Love the new features on the Dual Sense, but the form factor is doing something weird to my hands. If they could put the tech in a Dual Shock 4 form factor that would be perfect.

Yeah, I’ve found the DualSense to be a little too big so playing shooters with that stick placement on it feels so uncomfortable and makes my hands ache after a few minutes. Which sucks because I love the new haptic features in that controller, I just wish it had maintained the ergonomics of the DualShock 4

I have a different weird DualSense thing, but since y'all seem to be having issues I figured I'd chime in....

My hands get abnormally sweaty when using the DualSense. At first, I thought it was just due to Demon's Souls being stressful. But it's still happening during Madden, Ratchet & Clank and even Bugsnax. Now, my hands have been known to sweat during other gaming sessions, but it seems that with the DualSense, it's happening ten fold. And with the little PlayStation icons throughout the controller, it means I'm cleaning this thing with a toothbrush regularly.

As for hand cramping, it doesn't happen that much, but I've noticed that any game that has extra trigger feedback creates some soreness in my fingers which I chalk up to having to pull a little extra weight. So most recently, after long stretches with Returnal, my fingers are a little achy.

The new Xbox Series controller does that to my left hand. Xbox One controller is fine. I think it's because the controller is just slightly smaller.

The DualSense design is an ergonomic disaster. The grips get thinner as you get to the bottom of them so your hands slide down the controller as you're holding it giving you hand cramp. The face buttons are inexplicably not flat (look at your DualSense with your eyes in line with the face of it, you will see that the Circle button doesn't actually fit on the controller and they had to slope it downwards to get it to fit on - the X button has the same problem but on the opposite axis). The triggers proving resistance and vibration also just increase the effort you have to put in to using it. And to top it all off all the stuff they had to jam in it to make the haptics work means it weighs a ton.

I only had a PS5 for a 45 days. Returned it because it was making an audible enough buzzing when playing more intensive games. The one thing I remember not liking about the controller was the L1/R1 buttons. They feel too big and loose. I like how the DS4 buttons feel more pronounced, smaller and tighter. Its actually the one major thing I like more between PS and Xbox controllers. I'm not a fan of the bumpers on the new Xbox controllers. I actually switched out my Xbox controller for the DS4 for Sekiro because the L1 felt way better for deflecting.

Just want to point out I actually had really awful aches after using a dualsense for about a month. The cone shape of the two "handles" force my pink to nearly touch my palm. Then the back is about a half of an inch taller than the DS4, which means your index/middle fingers are constantly reaching to press certain buttons. Something about the motors/haptics that must require a large amount of space.

I played with m&kb on pc for two days and the ache went away. Needless to say, I'm picking up a DS4 controller and an adapter to play comfortably again.

I'm actually shocked at how much it hurts my hands, since I've used a series x controller, pro controller, joycons, nintendo 64, original xbox controller, etc. And never had an issue until now. Very strange.

Edit: I'm 6'1 and I have pretty large hands,.

I had the same thing happen to me. In the interest of saving money, I thought I would sell my Xbox but dragged my feet for a few weeks. After playing Call of Duty and Ratchet and Clank for a few weeks i would wake up with tightness and soreness along (what i now know) is my Ulnar nerve. I thought maybe I was working too hard, I had been putting in long hours at the office.

One morning my wrist was completely locked up, the bones actually clicked as I tried to rotate it left and right. Freaked out, I put it on ice and in a brace for a few days before seeing the doctor. It's been 5 weeks and I still have limited range of motion, but the pain is mostly gone now. My Ulnar Nerve is still healing in my right hand. I still can't lift anything heavy with my right hand but my doctor says it'll take a few more months of slowly going up from 3 pounds to 5 pounds to 10, etc. FYI I used to lift 20 pound weights no problem; now i'm stuck at 3.

From what I've heard it's the haptic force feedback + bad ergonomics of the controller that irritate and inflame the hand ligaments and nerves, and can exacerbate a minor issue (like from holding a cell phone too much) and taking it from a 2/10 to a 10/10. I can't use the Dual Sense, it has to be that expensive Razer wireless controller. But the Xbox Series controller still gives me no issues, even while I'm healing. It sucks because I love some of the PS exclusives, but I can't take 3 weeks off work ever again, it was horrible!

I had the same thing happen to me after getting the PS5 last summer. Full time family man these days so I wasnt even playing all that much but I noticed after playing Returnal with its haptic trigger thing and especially when I played through Miles Morales and the first 1/5th of Spiderman PS5 Update my hands had terrible pain like Reak said. Stopped gaming for a month. Played mostly Series S.

Been playing PS5 pretty religiously as my go to console now for the last 6 or so months without issue but I've noticed that absolutely zero games I've played since Spiderman have used the haptics on the controller at all. I strongly suspect the constant squeezing as it would push back on you with counter pressure to simulate the momentum of Spidey's swing was what was causing me the issues. We'll see what happens when Spidey 2 comes out this fall - hopefully a nice Starfield break and the ability to disable it will let me enjoy that one.

So I kind of…hate…the dualsense controller. It’s awkwardly contoured (my hands/fingers get tired after about an hour of play), it’s also heavy, has a terrible battery life, and the sticks start drifting way too fast.

At first I loved it, but after a couple years now I find myself wishing Sony would just let the DualShock 4 work on PS5 games. I turned off haptics and trigger resistance long ago and have never missed them.

I find myself playing the PS4 version of PS5 games just so I don’t have to use it.

I'm on my third Dual Sense controller. The one that came with the console started drifting after six months. The second one I got from Amazon started drifting after three months. Was using an electronic cleaner spray between the sticks and it helps for a while before it comes back and I have to do it over again. Then I got a colored one (sky blue) which I'm using right now, because they claim the stick issue was fixed or at least made better in colored designed ones. So far so good.

But yeah, for all the cool things it can do, the Dual Sense overall is a failure, because it fails the reliability and longevity test, which at the end of the day is all that matters for a controller. And given that most developers don't even fully use the Dual Sense like they could makes the problems with it even more noticeable. Luckily, I'm a tall person with big hands, so I don't have a problem using it for hours on end.

Was thinking about doing what Jeff G did and get the elite version with the removable sticks, but I feel a certain way giving Sony more money because of their original bad controller design. And I don't have money to burn like Jeff does on gaming stuff.

Alternatively, both my launch controller and the one I got for some two player stuff a year later are still very awesome. But I also never saw fun glitches in GTA3.

Between the Dualsense and the current Xbox controller, this generation's controllers seem like a regression compared to last gen. I've seen a lot of complaints regarding the comfort of the Dualsense and Sony didn't do anything to address the two biggest complaints (poor battery life and reliability) from the DualShock 4. At least with the DualShock 4, reliability issues aside, it was generally regarded as a very comfortable controller to use. Since launch I've seen many people talk about how the DualSense causes hand pain in a way other controllers don't and that seems like something that's just not acceptable anymore. It's an overly complicated, more expensive controller that ends up not being any better than the previous one.

Not that the current Xbox controller is any better. It's a pretty poor controller really. It's obnoxiously noisy (use it side by side with an Xbox One controller and you'll hear the difference immediately). I thought it was just me but Gerstmann also talked about on his podcast how he had to quit using Xbox Series controllers because they were waking up his kids if they were napping in the same room he was playing games in.

Then there's the current Xbox controller's d-pad. It's the worst d-pad on an Xbox controller full stop (worse than the 360 even). It is obscenely loud and feels downright awful to use. Try playing Tony Hawk or a platformer with it and you'll understand. It's too stiff to use in a fluid manner and button presses require too much force so it tires your thumb out. It seems like the d-pad was designed with the use case for it being "thing you occasionally use to switch weapons or whatever" not as a functional alternative to the analog stick. D-pad aside, the face buttons are also notably louder than the previous gen too. The force feedback motors in it are also louder while not being any better feeling than the previous generation.

There's also the fun bonus that buying an Xbox controller is still a crapshoot because they still haven't fixed the issue where sometimes Xbox controllers will ship out of the box with face buttons that stick, which was a known problem with the Xbox One controllers that Microsoft didn't bother fixing for this revision. The B button on the controller that came with my Series S sticks so much that I ended up going back to my Xbox One controller for a while.

If the criticism of the DualSense is that it seems over-engineered and too complicated, the Xbox Series controller has the opposite problem: it seems like they tried to cut corners to make it cheaper and we've ended up with a worse controller as a result.