Questions
How to use two controllers on a Mac
Pair each controller the normal way and the Mac keeps them apart; there is no limit that matters in practice. Games with local co-op pick them up as player one and two. The trouble comes with games that expect one pad and a keyboard, and there is a fix for that.
Pairing several
Put each pad in pairing mode in turn and connect it in System Settings, Bluetooth; mixing brands is fine, a DualSense and an Xbox pad together work. Wired pads count too. macOS numbers them in the order they connected.
Games that only see one
Some couch games take one controller plus the keyboard for the second player, and plenty of two-player browser and emulator games are keyboard-only. InputConfig gives every connected controller its own slot, and each preset holds a separate layout per slot: pad one sends WASD and Space, pad two sends the arrow keys and Enter, or whatever the game asks. The controllers page covers slots; the Split Fiction layout is an example built for the second player.
Which pad is which
The Live Visualizer shows one panel per controller with its name and slot number, so it is obvious which is which. Each preset can give a slot's light bar its own colour, which settles arguments about whose is whose.
Questions
How many controllers can a Mac connect at once?
Bluetooth allows several; four pads at once is routine. Each gets its own slot in InputConfig.
Can two people play a keyboard-only game with two controllers on a Mac?
Yes. Map each controller to a different set of keys in InputConfig; the game sees two keyboard players.
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