The Best Soundtracks From FIFA 98 To FIFA 20 Ranked

Published on 5th March 2024 by Guy Lanham

It's a question that divides the biggest FIFA (now officially known as EA Sports FC as of 2023) fans around the world: what's the best FIFA song to have ever featured in the franchise's soundtracks?

We Analysed The Best FIFA Soundtracks

The songs featured on the games have become as iconic as the series itself, with gamers and football fans being introduced to new artists from around the globe with every release.

For many FIFA fans, songs from earlier games give us nostalgia and have become cultural icons, taking us back to memorable periods of our lives. And for the artists, FIFA provides a boost in streams as the songs become firm favourites after hours of gameplay.

To celebrate the series, we've analysed every song featured from FIFA 98 to FIFA 20 (which totalled a whopping 794 tracks!) to create the ultimate soundtrack. Our definitive list has been compiled using streaming data, the commercial success of each song and the peak chart position to reveal the Ultimate FIFA soundtrack index.

Using data on Spotify we show which songs from the FIFA soundtracks have been streamed the most - with the most popular songs topping hundreds of millions of plays!

The research also reveals which songs received commercial success, using data from the Official Charts Company on how each track performed in the UK Charts.

Ranked: The Ultimate FIFA Soundtrack

At the top of our ultimate FIFA soundtrack is 'Love Me Again' by John Newman. This FIFA anthem was featured on the 2014 version of the game and is Newman's only UK number one. The song also tops over 335 million streams, making it the most popular song ever featured on FIFA.

'Mercy' by Duffy comes in at second place. The 2009 single was not only a UK number one but also clocks nearly 150 million streams, putting it in the silver position on the list.

Finishing in our top three is the The Jam classic, 'A Town Called Malice'. Often regarded as one of the game's most iconic songs, it peaked at Number 1 on the Official UK Chart back in 1983. The song featured on the 2004 version of the game and has been streamed over 85 million times.

Another FIFA classic, 'Super Massive Black Hole' claims fourth place. The Muse hit featured on the 2007 release of FIFA and despite only making Number 4 on the official chart, has been streamed over 205 million times.

Finishing off our top five is 'The Nights' by Avicci. This dance anthem gained a whopping 615 million streams on Spotify, which has secured its place at the top of the table despite only peaking at six on the UK Official Chart.

Fan favourites, 'Song 2' and 'Lyla' by rivals Blur and Oasis sit in the bottom half of our table. The Blur anthem featured in the first ever FIFA game and sits in 12th place on our ranking. Their northern counterparts sit in the 'relegation zone' of our league, despite peaking at number one on the Official Charts the song hasn't found success in terms of streams which pulled it down the ranking.

The Most Streamed FIFA Soundtrack Songs

Our research has ranked the most streamed songs from the FIFA franchise and reveals the estimated earnings for each track.

At the top of this chart sits Avicii with 'The Nights', topping over 615 million streams. Often regarded as a modern FIFA classic, the song saw an increase in streams after the DJ passed away in 2018.

In second place is 'you should see me in a crown'. The Billie Eillish hit featured on the 2019 soundtrack and is estimated to earn the successful star almost £1.7 million.

Rounding off our top three is the Imagine Dragons track 'On Top of the World'. The hit featured on the 2013 game and has clocked over 480 million plays on Spotify since its release, potentially earning the band over £1.6 million.

The Highest Charting FIFA Soundtrack Songs

The FIFA soundtracks have featured five number ones from artists John Newman, Duffy, The Jam, Oasis and Robbie Williams, on games between 2000 and 2014.

'Black and Gold' by Sam Sparro and 'Song 2' by Blur are the only tracks on the soundtracks to reach the second spot on the Official Chart, with the latter being the oldest track on the list.

The Kooks and Morrisey's number three hits place them in eighth and ninth position, with Muse's 'Supermassive Black Hole' finishing off the top ten.

At the bottom of this ranking is classic 'Blue Monday' by New Order which peaked at number 9 on the Official Chart. However with 60 songs peaking below ninth position and a further 711 FIFA tracks not charting at all, our top 20 represent the most commercially successful tracks.

Want to listen to the top songs from all the FIFA games? We've created a Spotify playlist so you can listen to the greatest hits from the FIFA series so far.

Methodology

The data was pulled for 794 tracks which featured on the soundtracks of all the FIFA games between 98 and 20 which were also available on Spotify. For each chart the top 20 were chosen. The full data set can be found here.

All streaming figures were gathered from Spotify and were correct as of 22nd September 2020, with estimated earnings being calculated using data from thetrichordist.com.

All chart positions were gathered by using the UK Official Charts Company's archive. Our index was ranked based on streams and chart position. Each song was given points based on streams and chart position, with the highest position and streams earning them the highest points.

The ranking was calculated by weighting the chart position as 75% and the streaming figures at 25%. This was to accommodate for songs released before Spotify's launch in October 2008 which would have given them fewer streams.