If you’re a fan of video game music, here are the songs making the most coin
Video games have become a great platform for promoting music. And if a game publisher wants to include a song, they have to pay to license it. A company called Ebuyer took a look at the highest-earning gaming songs of all time. It uses Spotify streaming data and a calculator tool to estimate how much each of these songs earned.
| 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 |
It’s a bit strange seeing Anarchy in the UK there … like I’m pretty sure most people are listening to that song aren’t doing it because of Tony Hawk (though if it was like Superman by Goldfinger I think it would be arguable), but for the rest of the tracks the link is undeniable.
I love seeing Clint Mansell pop up anywhere, PWEI being my all-time favourite band.
Mick Gordon is so amazing! When playing Doom 2016 I had to look him up; I was wondering if ID had contracted Trent Reznor again like they did for Quake. I was pleasantly surprised to find Gordon had collaborated with a modern industrial band I love, 3Teeth (also featuring Ho99o9): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ZCiDuN-rok