Editorial Note: The following article was written with help from our friends at journalistic.org
What are the most popular video game soundtracks on Spotify? Find out below.
As technology continues to evolve, there is no question that video game soundtracks have dramatically improved since home consoles’ early origins. From the heroic chorus chants in Skyrim to the beautiful guitar moments between Joel and Ellie in The Last of Us 2, soundtracks certainly play a key role in the game’s overall success.
But which video game has the best soundtrack?
Personally, I am biased towards the soundtracks of the original Tomb Raider series. Nathan McCree’s score in the original 1996 game is nothing short of a masterpiece, and the snowmobile theme from Tomb Raider 2 (1997) still gets my blood pumping all these years later. However, that is more of a personal preference and not what this article is about! You are here to find out the most popular video game soundtracks, and we have the answer for you!
Interested in this, the folks at RantCasino.com wanted to find out which video game soundtrack is the most popular. After collating a list of the most loved video game soundtracks, the team went to Spotify to count the number of streams per soundtrack, ultimately, allowing them to rank the most popular soundtrack based on its total number of Spotify streams. *These numbers were as of June 2021, so please note that the play counts may have changed since then.
Key Points
- The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is the most popular video game soundtrack with 316,387,843 total Spotify streams!
- The second most popular is The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt with 304,138,799 Spotify streams.
- The Last of Us comes in third, followed by League of Legends and Ori and the Blind Forest.
- The Choice from The Last of Us, is the most popular video game track with 36,809,934 total Spotify streams.
The top 10 video game soundtracks:
|
Rank |
Game |
Album name |
Total Spotify play count |
|
1 |
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim |
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim: Original Game Soundtrack |
316,387,843 |
|
2 |
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt |
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt (Original Game Soundtrack) |
304,138,799 |
|
3 |
The Last of Us |
The Last of Us |
178,351,897 |
|
4 |
League of Legends |
The Music of League of Legends One |
81,677,962 |
|
5 |
Ori and the Blind Forest |
Ori and the Blind Forest (Original Soundtrack) |
80,858,446 |
|
6 |
God of War |
God of War (PlayStation Soundtrack) |
74,184,832 |
|
7 |
Assassin’s Creed |
Assassin’s Creed: The Best of Jesper Kyd |
73,541,304 |
|
8 |
Crypt of the NecroDancer |
Crypt of the NecroDancer (Original Game Soundtrack) |
71,048,161 |
|
9 |
Mass Effect 3 |
Mass Effect 3 (Original Soundtrack) |
66,226,018 |
|
10 |
Assassin’s Creed 4: Black Flag |
Assassin’s Creed 4: Black Flag (Original Game Soundtrack) |
58,723,737 |
RantCasino.com can reveal that topping the most popular video game soundtracks, according to Spotify streams, is The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim: Original Game Soundtrack. Skyrim’s main theme was recorded with a 30-man choir in dragon-tongue and has a grand total of 316,387,843 Spotify streams.
Coming just behind, in second, is The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt with 304,138,799 Spotify streams. The soundtrack includes folk music mixed with battle hymns and was even nominated for best soundtrack in a video game at the 2015 Hollywood Music Media awards.
The Last of Us is third with 178,351,897 Spotify streams. The game was released on June 14th, 2013 and was one of the most beloved Naughty Dog games of all time.
Coming in fourth, with 81,677,962 Spotify streams, is the music from League of Legends. Created by Riot Games, the online multiplayer has certainly cemented itself as one of the most popular games in the world with many able to recognise the tunes of Summoner’s Rift.
Completing the top five is Ori and the Blind Forest with 80,858,446 total Spotify streams. The backing soundtrack created by Gareth Coker has been labelled “astoundingly beautiful” and “nothing short of a musical masterpiece” by Zanobard reviews.
The top 5 video game individual tracks:
|
Rank |
Game |
Song name |
Total Spotify play count |
|
1 |
The Last of Us |
The Choice |
36,809,934 |
|
2 |
League of Legends |
Get Jinxed |
35,197,458 |
|
3 |
The Last of Us |
The Last of Us |
34,965,692 |
|
4 |
Assassin’s Creed 2 |
Ezio’s Family |
26,906,019 |
|
5 |
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim |
Dragonborn Theme |
26,608,593 |
What do you think of these results? Do you agree with them, or do you feel some of the entries on the list are overrated? Furthermore, what are some of your all-time favorite video game soundtracks? Let us know in the comments.
Methodology
- RantCasino.com used Spotify’s Video Game Soundtracks playlist as their seed list to collect the most popular video game soundtracks of all-time.
- The list was then cleaned and filtered to select 73 of the most popular video game soundtracks in the playlist, removing any albums that were not relevant to the study such as compilation albums.
- The total Spotify streams were scraped and collated for each of the listed video game soundtracks. All data amalgamated and ranked.
- The data was gathered on 06/18/2021 and is accurate as of then but subject to change.
