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Music And Video Gaming: A Love Affair

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Video gaming is one of the industries that has experienced the most exponential growth over the last decade. Due to the heightened trend of video games, especially amongst the younger generation, it is widely believed that the gaming demographic will usurp Hollywood as the number one form of entertainment in the nearest future.

The growth of the gaming industry, in some way, has been advantageous to the online music streaming market which has also seen tremendous growth in recent years. Just last year alone, music streams via video gaming consoles grew by more than 55%. This number is projected to increase consistently in the coming years, barring any unforeseen economic downturn.

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Music influencers are the most popular influencers for American teens followed by gaming influencers, according to a recent study by Deloitte.

What’s the correlation between music and gaming and how are both industries helping each other?

The Video Gaming and Music Streaming Synergy

Gaming and music work hand in hand, and many gamers will tell you the gaming experience is sweetest when music is introduced. It’s no surprise why video and online casino games incorporate musical elements in them. It has been found that music helps to enhance the mood of players and how they respond to each gaming task placed before them.

It is also well known that music helps to quicken people’s desire to gamble on casino games and the same can be said about video games. Nowadays, some of the most reputable gaming companies release soundtracks to accompany a game’s launch, much like Original Motion Picture Soundtracks for Hollywood movie scores. We now have Pop stars composing and recording official soundtracks for gaming companies which goes to show the healthy synergy between both industries.

Growth Rate

The gaming industry is growing faster in terms of market size and revenue compared to music streaming. Both markets experienced growth during the pandemic year, however, revenue from games more than quadrupled the global music streaming revenue. As a result, music companies are increasingly looking at the ever-expanding gaming demographic as the next gold mine to harness.

Currently, there are over 2.2 billion mobile gamers in the world with the United States being the gaming industry’s epicenter (more than 57% of the world’s gaming developers reside in the States). In March 2022 alone, the US gaming industry recorded $515 million in hardware revenue. The video game market is valued at a whopping $95.45 billion, as of November 2021.


The music streaming market has also been expanding year after year since its inception, and a collaboration with the gaming industry will push the streaming market even more. Streaming is currently the primary source of revenue for most record labels, and it has grown at an average rate of 43.9% since 2014. As of this writing, about 84% of the US music industry revenue comes solely from music streaming.

The global music streaming market was valued at $18.9 billion in 2020 (+26% from 2019). The US held about 53% of the global music streaming market size in that same span (-11% from 2019).

What Genres of Music Do Gamers Listen To?

More gamers listen to other music when playing games than the soundtracks featured in a game. According to a survey, Hip-Hop is the most popular genre of music amongst Generation Z gamers, and this shouldn’t come as a shock. The genre has remained the most dominant across streaming platforms for a few years now. In 2020, Hip-Hop accounted for more than ⅓ of all US streams.

Drake was Spotify’s most streamed artist this year with 1.4 billion streams, as of March. YoungBoy NBA came in second with 1.3 billion while Kanye West, Eminem, Kodak Black, and Rod Wave all hit the top ten.

Most gamers prefer the type of music that gets them fired up to play, and Trap music, Hip-Hop’s most popular subgenre, fits this description perfectly. Trap music artists like Travis Scott, Lil Baby, Lil Durk, Young Thug, and Gunna, are some of the most streamed Hip-Hop artists among gamers.

Obviously, gamers also love the soundtracks featured on their favorite games, especially the bouncy, chilly, pop sounds. Some of the most popular video game soundtracks on streaming platforms include England (The Industrial Era) by Geoff Knorr, Halo by Martin O’Donnell and Michael Salvatori, Bear McCreary’s God of War, Assassin’s Creed IV Black Flag Main Theme by Brian Tyler, Doom by Mick Gordon, and Jessica Curry’s All the Earth. The Video Game Soundtracks playlist on Spotify has over 500,000 likes, as of this writing.

Another genre of music that appears fanciful to many gamers is the ever-bubbling electronic music. Unlike Hip Hop, which relies mainly on lyrics and pumped-up beats, electronic music’s main core is the instrumentals. This makes it an ideal genre for gamers as it helps them stay focused on their gameplay.

Calvin Harris, Martin Garrix, Kygo, Zedd, Clean Bandit, Sigala, David Guetta, and the late Avicii are some of the most popular electronic artists gamers love to listen to while playing.

Hi, my name is Erick Ycaza. I have a BA in Advertising & Graphic Design. This blog is to provide you with daily music news and share my personal style.

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