The `SDL` library returns joystick axes with the C type `int16_t`, which is a signed 16-bit integer. The range of that type is $[-2^15, 2^15 - 1] = [-32768, 32767]$.
The `SDL` library returns joystick axes with the C type `int16_t`, which is a signed 16-bit integer. The range of that type is $[-2^{15}, 2^{15} - 1] = [-32768, 32767]$ ($2^{15}$ rather than $2^{16}$ because it is a signed integer).