With the music industry continuing to undergo a revolution in the way in which performers produce and market their compositions and the choice listeners make in consuming their products, the latest earning figures from gaming songs may give an indication of the future direction of commercial travel for artists.

According to reported statistics, worldwide unit sales of CDs declined a further 23% in 2019, although in classical genres it still accounted for 12% of total sales.

Meanwhile, the British Phonographic Industry revealed that UK music industry revenues rose 3.8% in 2020, reaching £1.118 billion.

This was the highest total in 14 years (aided by lockdown increasing demand) with the continuing vinyl boom and adoption of streaming offsetting an 18.5% decline on CD sales.

Rather strangely, cassettes are making a something of a comeback, with revenues rising by over 4% to £8.2 million in 2020.

Biggest gaming earners

Now, Ebuyer has investigated which are the highest earning gaming songs of all time.

Using Spotify streaming data and a calculator tool to estimate the earnings, they compared the turn-over of 21 songs used in some of the most popular video games.

For the estimated 3.4 billion people who have made the gaming industry worth reportedly over $175 billion worldwide, it is Minecraft that has produced the highest earning song.

Sweden first

C418's 'Sweden' has been listened to over 102 million times, resulting in estimated earnings of $408,914 since its launch in 2011.

For those who don't know — Minecraft revolves around the simple tasks of mining resources and crafting new objects for the player to use or develop in what is referred to as "a procedurally generated world".

Some way behind it comes 'Rip & Tear' by Mick Gordon which is featured on the game Doom, which has generated over $254,000 from launch.

Third spot goes to the '115' by Treyarch Sound, Brian Tuey, James McCawley and Kevin Sherwood which is featured on Call of Duty: Black Ops, and which generated estimated earnings of over $219,000.

The decline in Super Mario

However, it may be the signs of the evolving times that tracks from famous games such as Tetris and Super Mario struggle to make it into the top 20.

And the industry shows no sign of slowing down in growth — with the projected global market figure projected to reach $300 by 2025.

University courses

Little wonder then that several universities and conservatoires are offering courses that include music composition and technology that now includes gaming.

Courtney Williamson, Marketing Manager at Ebuyer stated: "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."

However one industry composer has said that the monetary returns are nothing more than "a rip-off" with gaming firms making millions of dollars in profit with the composer or creator of the music getting a tiny percentage return.

Top 10 Earners:

1. Minecraft (C418 — Sweden): 102,231,172 streams/$408,924.69 estimated earnings)

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

To find out more go to:
https://www.ebuyer.com/blog/2022/06/the-highest-earning-gaming-songs/