The invention discloses a gamepad-based character input method, comprising the steps of: identifying a movement direction of a movement operation in response to the movement operation of a joystick on a gamepad of a user, and displaying at least one character corresponding to the movement direction on a character interface; and outputting and displaying the character which is needed by the user and is located on the character interface on a display interface in response to a selection operation of the user on the gamepad. Correspondingly, the invention also discloses a gamepad-based character input device. By use of the embodiment, the character input can be realized through the gamepad and the input is convenient and rapid.