Questions
How to use a joystick on a Mac
Plug it in. macOS reads any USB joystick, flight stick, wheel, or arcade stick as a standard HID device with no driver. What happens next depends on the app: flight sims and emulators read HID devices themselves, most other games do not, and for those you map the stick to keys and the mouse with InputConfig.
What macOS does with a joystick
There are two kinds of controller as far as a Mac is concerned. Gamepads that Apple's controller framework knows, the PlayStation, Xbox, and Switch pads, get first-class support and every native game sees them. A joystick, HOTAS, wheel, or fight stick is a plain HID device: the Mac reads its axes and buttons, but Apple's framework does not present it as a game controller, so a native Mac game usually will not see it.
Apps that read it directly
X-Plane, FlightGear, DCS through CrossOver, OpenEmu, RetroArch, and most emulators read HID devices themselves, with their own axis and button assignment. Set the stick up in the app's controls screen and you are done. Do not put the stick behind a hub if it acts up; some hubs drop HID devices.
Everything else
For games and apps that do not read HID, InputConfig reads the stick as a raw HID device: every axis and button is bindable to a key, a mouse movement, a scroll, or anything else. Force feedback is not driven. Wheels, sticks, and arcade sticks all appear under Connected Controllers in the app's settings so you can see what it found. The other controllers page lists what has been tested.
Questions
Do USB joysticks work on a Mac?
Yes, any USB HID joystick is read by macOS without a driver. Whether a given game uses it is up to the game.
Does a Thrustmaster or Logitech flight stick work on a Mac?
As a HID device, yes. X-Plane and similar sims read it directly; other games need a mapper such as InputConfig.
Can I use an arcade stick on a Mac?
Yes. Emulators read it directly, and InputConfig maps it for anything else, including fighting games that only take keyboard input.
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