7 MMO Soundtracks To Vibe To

A lot of different work goes into making MMOs feel like living breathing worlds. Everything, including gameplay, visual design, narrative, and more is necessary to create a world players want to spend a lot of time in. One thing that’s just as necessary but is sometimes overlooked by the players – at least until they notice it feels off or is missing – is the game’s sound, particularly the music.

The truth is that the music can often set the tone for a game better than the art can. A good main theme can tell you what kind of world you’re going to be living in. Good zone music can tell you if you’re in potential danger or should feel at home. A banger boss theme can make a fight feel even more epic. And, the right music at the right moment can pull on those heartstrings.

As long as video games have been being made, a lot of thought has gone into the music and over time, it’s become as much as a part of our lives as soundtracks for movies. Most old-school gamers can still summon Mario themes into their head on command. Overclocked Remix has built an entire library of remixed video game themes over the years. And fans are spending good money to go see video game orchestras live or purchasing albums.

The great thing about video game music is that so much of it is something people can easily listen to while doing other things. Hearing your favorite boss theme while doing work or getting in a workout can instantly make it more enjoyable.

I’ve personally been listening to a lot of HoYoMix music lately – themes from Genshin Impact and Honkai Star Rail, among others. But that’s not all that I’ve been listening to. After all, there are a lot of good options out there and the game companies are happy to upload them to easily accessible platforms. Here, we list some of the best options for themes from MMOs to listen to. So, get to listening and perhaps they’ll make the coming week a better experience.

Warframe

Let’s start with the game that just dropped an update that revolves around music. While the songs aren’t on the official Warframe music playlist on YouTube yet, quite a few of the others are. And you can bet they’ll be adding the music from Techrot Encore soon enough. Warframe’s music has a lot of variety depending on what updates they were made for, but it’s difficult not to like it all.

Rift

To my knowledge, only one soundtrack album was ever put out for Rift. It was distributed with the collector’s edition when the game launched and included 17 songs. Game companies weren’t as into uploading music for fans back then, so while the soundtrack is available online, it’s because some nice individuals ripped the songs and uploaded them after getting their CE. It’s a shame there wasn’t more because it’s well worth listening to.

League of Legends

If there’s one game that’s really associated itself with music, it’s probably League of Legends. After all, Riot has spent a good amount of time doing things like creating their own girl group, complete with a full library of songs. And then, of course, there’s all the music from Arcane. Honestly, League fans are spoiled for music choices.

Star Wars: The Old Republic

When you create a game based on one of the most popular movie series of all time with one of the most beloved soundtracks of all time, you really want to do everything you can to match that. If the music in a Star Wars game isn’t right, it’s not going to feel like Star Wars. Luckily, that’s not something players really had to worry about and the soundtrack is well worth a listen.

Final Fantasy XIV

When a game covers as many genres as Final Fantasy does, you need composers to match. This is especially true of Final Fantasy XIV which is really trying to embrace almost every genre in existence in one game. Luckily, Final Fantasy XIV is the perfect team led by Masayoshi Soken. It doesn’t hurt that Soken also fronts The Primals, a metal band dedicated to Final Fantasy XIV music. Effectively, XIV fans are not in want of something to listen to.

World of Warcraft

World of Warcraft has been around for a long time and has plenty of music for players to enjoy. It’s also one of the few MMOs to turn all of that music into a Lofi collection for fans to listen to on YouTube. Because of this, WoW may have one of the best selections of music for people to listen to while they’re trying to get some work done – provided that work isn’t construction or something.

Eve Online

Speaking of things you can listen to while you work. Since Eve Online is set in space, there’s a lot of relaxing, ambient music in the game. In fact, you could probably meditate to it if you wanted to. It doesn’t seem like CCP Games has uploaded soundtracks on their own. But, considering players have put together 12-hour streams, they probably don’t need to.