A study on the most popular video game soundtracks on Spotify reveals an unlikely winner in the form of Metal Gear Solid 5, which surpassed heavy favorites like Guitar Hero and Rock Band to claim the crown. Metal Gear Solid 5 is a well-regarded title that performed well in both sales and reception but, for all of its success in gameplay mechanics, narrative twists and turns, and cinematic presentation, its soundtrack is rarely part of the discussion.
In the age of Spotify and other music streaming services, video game soundtracks are getting a well-deserved spotlight thanks to more visible curation and easier access to them. While obvious games like Guitar Hero and Rock Band tend to have impressive song lineups, it’s not all about chart success and popular singers. Video game OSTs – particularly some of those in the indie scene, which are made with significantly less resources – continue to be some of the most under-appreciated elements of the industry, with many of them comprised of hours-long playlists that feature compelling, beautifully-composed tracks.
Still, in a straight-up ranking of the most popular video game soundtracks on Spotify, it’s a total surprise to see Metal Gear Solid 5 outrank its competition – and by nearly 10 million more than its nearest competitor, Rock n’ Roll Racing, a 1993 title with a whopping six song soundtrack. In a study done by OLBG (first reported on by Kotaku Australia), Metal Gear Solid 5 was found to have generated 143,784,383 plays on Spotify, an absurd statistic that is as impressive as it is shocking. Rock Band 3 was the highest-placed iteration of that series at 3rd place with 94,581,373 plays, while Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock was the best-performing version of that franchise with 87,880,992 plays, good enough for fourth on the list.
It is important to note, however, that the study’s choice of data curation may have benefited Metal Gear Solid 5 more than most. Metal Gear Solid 5‘s soundtrack has 16 songs on Spotify, and the study calculated the average plays per song category by taking each game’s total plays and dividing it by the number of tracks available. This produced a huge number for Metal Gear Solid 5 thanks to its inclusion of classics from a-ha and Billy Idol, but was particularly harsh for Grand Theft Auto 5, which has 537 songs in its catalogue available on Spotify. Rock n’ Roll Racing was an obvious beneficiary here too, with just 6 songs weighing its score and with a soundtrack that has Paranoid by Black Sabbath on it.
The OLBG study is certainly interesting, and highlights some hidden gems from bygone eras of video game history – in particular, its nice to see the Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater series consistently place in the top 20 – but it’s probably not the most foolproof method of weighing these soundtracks. Video game soundtracks remain a huge part of Spotify and of the industry itself, however, so further analysis on how they perform and why will undoubtedly become valuable information moving forward.
