The 10 Best Video Game Soundtracks Ever Made

In the early days of home computing, game music was little more than sharp electronic pulses squeezed out of built-in speakers. Players in the 80s hammered away at rubber keyboards while a single-channel beeper struggled to keep up. Those primitive sounds did the job, but they left little room for nuance. Hardware limits shaped composition, forcing musicians to think in bleeps rather than symphonies.

Fast forward to now and the landscape has changed completely. Modern titles commission full orchestras, book premium studios, and treat music as a central storytelling tool rather than filler. Game scores rival film soundtracks in scale and ambition, and audiences treat them with the same respect. In September 2024, a live performance of the score from Final Fantasy VII Rebirth sold out at the Royal Albert Hall in London; a clear sign that this music no longer lives only inside consoles, it commands its own stage.

Final Fantasy VII (1997)

Few titles mark a turning point like Final Fantasy VII. Composed by Nobuo Uematsu, who scored the mainline entries in the franchise, the music moves between sweeping world themes and tense battle motifs with total control of mood. The main theme carries a wistful lift, while the combat tracks push urgency without overwhelming the player. “Aerith’s Theme” remains the emotional core, a restrained piece that plays after her sudden death and still hits decades later. The score helped define what players expected from cinematic RPG music.

Red Dead Redemption (2010)

Rockstar treated this Western like a film, and the soundtrack follows suit. One standout moment arrives when John Marston rides into Mexico and José González’s “Far Away” takes over the soundscape. The song plays in full, with minimal interruption. It feels intimate, reflective, and slightly ominous. The track hints at Marston’s destiny while reinforcing the loneliness at the heart of the narrative. It is a rare case where a licensed song becomes inseparable from a character arc.

Katamari Damacy (2004)

Katamari Damacy built its cult following partly on sound. Directed musically by Yuu Miyake, the soundtrack blends jazz, samba, pop, and electronic flourishes into something that feels gleefully odd. Vocals play a major role, which was unusual for games at the time. The songs loop in your head long after you stop rolling up cows, cars, and entire cities into a cosmic ball. The music does not just support the chaos. It amplifies it.

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (2011)

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim goes big in every department, including sound. Composer Jeremy Soule wrote a score that matches the scale of its open world, with the commercial release spanning four discs. For the main theme “Dragonborn,” he used a male choir of around thirty singers and crafted lyrics in the fictional Draconic language. That level of detail mirrors the game’s design philosophy. The music turns exploration into myth and combat into legend, which helps explain why players kept returning years after release.

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (1998)

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time remains a benchmark for fantasy scoring. Koji Kondo created themes that feel timeless, from the gentle ocarina melodies to the grand overworld music that frames Hyrule as a living realm. The score is often cited as one of the finest of its era, not just within gaming. Its motifs are simple enough to hum yet layered enough to sustain an epic quest, which is harder to pull off than it sounds.

Persona 5 (2016)

Persona 5 thrives on attitude, and composer Shoji Meguro leans into that fully. The opening track “Wake Up, Get Up, Get Out There” sets the tone with acid-jazz flair, while “Beneath the Mask” slows things down during evening segments of the day-night cycle. The soundtrack shifts genres as the in-game calendar moves forward, reflecting school life, dungeon crawling, and late-night reflection. Few scores manage to feel this cohesive while juggling so many styles.

Assassin’s Creed II (2009)

Assassin's Creed II gave the franchise its defining musical identity. “Ezio’s Theme” became shorthand for the series, reworked in later entries but never losing its core melody. The track balances melancholy with resolve, capturing the arc of Ezio Auditore as he moves from grief to purpose. Later titles built on this foundation, yet the emotional blueprint traces back to this installment.

Doom (1993)

The original Doom rewired expectations for action game music. Composer Bobby Prince drew from metal acts such as Metallica and Slayer, pushing primitive sound cards to their limit. The result was fast, abrasive, and relentless during firefights, with quieter tracks offering brief relief between waves of demons. The soundtrack proved that aggression could be musical architecture rather than noise.

Journey (2012)

Journey uses music as emotional guidance. The opening piece “Nascence” begins with sparse instrumentation before swelling as the player progresses. Solo passages give way to fuller arrangements, echoing the game’s multiplayer design where strangers cross paths without words. The score mirrors that paradox of isolation and connection, reinforcing the sense that even when you travel alone, someone is never far away.

Sonic the Hedgehog 3 (1994)

Sonic the Hedgehog 3 remains a 16-bit highlight. Rumors have long linked Michael Jackson to the project, though the extent of his involvement remains debated. Regardless of authorship, tracks such as "Hydro City Zone Act 2" and "Ice Cap Zone" deliver driving hooks that match the game’s speed. The melodies are catchy, proving that technical limits never stopped composers from aiming high.