From 8-Bit Beeps to Arena Anthems: How Music Became Part of Gaming and Esports

Mghamer Editorial Team · 20 October 2026

6 min read

There was no single inventor or starting gun. From early arcade sounds and Koji Kondo’s memorable themes to Imagine Dragons at Worlds and Riot’s virtual pop group K/DA, music has become a way for games and esports to build emotion, identity and community.

Before an arena anthem or a cinematic soundtrack, there was a handful of electronic notes. A sound could tell a player that a ball had bounced, a life was lost or danger was getting closer. As games became more expressive, those signals grew into melodies, musical worlds and, eventually, live performances made for millions of viewers.

There is no single inventor of music in games, and no one moment when music and esports suddenly met. The relationship grew in stages: game designers used sound to make play legible; composers made those sounds memorable; and tournament organisers began treating music as part of the event itself.

Where did video game music begin?

The earliest electronic games were shaped by hardware limits. In the 1970s, arcade machines could produce simple tones and effects, not the full recordings players hear today. The Strong National Museum of Play describes Taito’s 1978 Space Invaders as an early landmark: its designer Tomohiro Nishikado created a repeating four-note figure that quickened as the aliens approached. The music did more than decorate the screen; its pulse made the threat feel closer.

That is a useful starting point, but not a claim that Nishikado invented all game music. Early game audio had many contributors, and the definition of “music” changes depending on whether we mean sound effects, a short start-up tune or a continuous score.

Koji Kondo and the game theme players carried with them

As home consoles offered composers more room to build musical ideas, Koji Kondo became one of the most influential names in the field. Nintendo assigned Kondo to sound for Super Mario Bros., released in Japan in 1985. In Nintendo’s retrospective interview, Kondo explains how he tried to make the music fit the game rather than simply play behind it.

The result was a set of compact melodies that could loop, leave room for effects and remain recognisable after the console was switched off. That design principle still matters: the best game music is often composed around what the player is doing, not just what the camera shows.

A game’s music can be a signal, a setting and a memory—all in the same few notes.

When did music become part of esports?

Competitive gaming had music around it long before a single broadcast anthem could define the format. Intros, walk-on tracks, arena sound systems and community-made mixes appeared across different games and events. Because esports developed across many titles and organisers, there is no universally agreed “first” esports music moment.

One highly visible milestone came at the 2014 League of Legends World Championship final. Riot announced that Imagine Dragons would perform “Warriors,” the tournament’s anthem, during the opening ceremony. The moment linked the team introductions, the live crowd and the competition to a song created for that season. It helped show what a commissioned anthem could do: give an event a sound that fans could recognise outside the match broadcast.

K/DA: game characters as a music act

In 2018, Riot took the idea further with K/DA, a virtual pop group built around League of Legends characters and performed with real artists. Madison Beer, Jaira Burns and (G)I-DLE’s Miyeon and Soyeon contributed vocals to “POP/STARS,” which debuted as part of the Worlds Finals opening ceremony. Riot later reported that the song reached No. 1 on several charts, including Billboard’s World Digital Song Sales chart and QQ Music’s New Song chart.

K/DA connected a game’s characters, visual design, music video, live staging and in-game cosmetics. The important point is not that every game needs a virtual band. It is that a game world can support music with its own cast, style and story—and music can introduce that world to people who may not watch a match or play every day.

What can gaming and music achieve together?

The strongest collaborations start with a purpose. Music can help a game or tournament:

The next step: interactive music, not just a soundtrack

Games can react to play: music may change with the pace, location or intensity of a match. Esports can extend that interaction into a live show, where stage lighting, camera cuts, player entrances and musical cues respond to the event. Future projects could let fans vote between licensed arrangements, remix stems released for community use, or attend a virtual performance inside a game world.

These are possibilities, not automatic upgrades. A loud music cue can obscure commentary; a track that fits one region may not travel well to another; and a song cleared for a game trailer may not be cleared for a livestream, replay or paid campaign. Teams should plan rights, credits, accessibility and broadcast mixes at the beginning—not after a takedown or muted VOD.

A practical blueprint for a MENA collaboration

The story began with simple sounds because that was what the machines could make. It now stretches from composers such as Koji Kondo to bands such as Imagine Dragons, real-world performers, virtual artists such as K/DA and the local scenes still waiting to be heard. When gaming and music are combined with care, they can make a competition feel like a culture—and give that culture a melody of its own.