Gaming soundtracks – These songs brought in the most cash!

30 June 2022 - Press release

 

• Minecraft's song 'Sweden' by C418 gets first spot, with over 102 million Spotify streams and estimated earnings of over $408k
• The Zelda theme, as well as the Super Mario theme surprisingly share the last two ranks

In the world of video games, soundtracks have always played a big role. Fans can often recognise a game without even seeing it on the screen and well-known songs like the Zelda Theme Song have been sampled in numerous new versions, such as deadmau5's 'You need a ladder'.

With some of the songs in games being that iconic, they'll inevitably be listened to on streaming platforms like Spotify. E-commerce retailer Ebuyer has curated a list of the most famous songs found in video games and calculated¹ the earnings based on the number of streams.

Rank	Game	Artist	Song	Streams	Estimated earnings
1	Minecraft	C418	Sweden	102,231,172	$408,924.69
2	Doom	Mick Gordon	Rip & Tear	63,644,520	$254,578.08
3	Call of Duty: Black Ops	Treyarch Sound, Brian Tuey, James McCawley, Kevin Sherwood	115	54,911,005	$219,644.02
4	The Last of Us	Gustavo Santaolalla, Alan Umstead	The Choice	41,851,879	$167,407.52
5	Grand Theft Auto V	The Chain Gang of 1974	Sleepwalking	39,088,659	$156,354.64
6	Assassin's Creed 2	Jesper Kyd	Ezio's Family	35,383,893	$141,535.57
7	Tony Hawk	Sex Pistols	Anarchy in the UK	33,720,634	$134,882.54
8	The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim	Jeremy Soule	Dragonborn	31,422,280	$125,689.12
9	God of War	Bear McCreary	God of War	29,708,710	$118,834.84
10	Skyrim	Jeremy Soule	Secunda	25,526,507	$102,106.03
11	Halo: Combat Evolved	Martin O'Donnell, Michael Salvatori	Halo	24,779,013	$99,116.05
12	The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	Marcin Przybylowicz	Geralt of Rivia	23,743,726	$94,974.90
13	Mass Effect 3	Clint Mansell	Leaving Earth	20,363,894	$81,455.58
14	Mass Effect	Jack Wall	Vigil	18,035,247	$72,140.99
15	Halo 3	Martin O'Donnell, Michael Salvatori	Never Forget	17,281,695	$69,126.78
16	Death Stranding: Timefall	Bring me the horizon	Ludens	32,667,388*	$57,167.93
17	Battlefield	Johan Süderqvist	Battlefield One	7,484,536	$29,938.14
18	Tetris	Hirokazu Tanaka	Tetris Theme	5,464,504	$21,858.02
19	Halo 2	Breaking Benjamin	Blow Me Away	9,670,446*	$16,923.28
20	The Legend of Zelda	Koji Kondo	Zelda Theme Song	9,140,648*	$15,996.13
21	Super Mario	Koji Kondo	Super Mario Theme	1,493,518	$5,974.07

 

The highest-earning songs

Released in 2011, C418's song 'Sweden' is featured in Minecraft and has accumulated a whopping 102,231,172 streams with estimated earnings of $408,924.69. The metal song 'Rip & Tear' by Mick Gordon, which players listen to in Doom conquers the second rank with estimated earnings of $254,578.08 – that's nearly 50% less than the song Sweden! The first-person shooter game Call of Duty: Black Ops also provided us with a top hit, Treychard Sound's '115' was listened to 54,911,005 times and earned $219,644.02, landing the song on third spot.

Surprisingly low earners

Some of the most memorable theme songs from older games generate surprisingly few streams today.

The Zelda Theme song's catchy melody is embedded into the memories of many people playing video games in the late 90s, but the song was only streamed 9,140,648 times on Spotify, leading to earnings of $15,996.13 and on the 20^th rank. And to close the ranking off Super Mario's theme by Koji Kondo only has 1,493,518 streams – just a fraction of other songs on the list!

Courtney Williamson, Marketing Manager at Ebuyer comments: "Songs may be produced specifically for a game or are famous for featuring in a popular game, which then results in artists earning more – a win-win for everyone! Some themes are so memorable they can be easily recognised by a whole generation."

To find out more about Ebuyer and the highest-earning gaming songs, please visit: https://www.ebuyer.com/blog/2022/06/the-highest-earning-gaming-songs/