EA creates the 'Ultimate FIFA soundtrack' for the final entry

EA has announced the Ultimate FIFA soundtrack following a collaboration with Spotify, during which series fans voted on thousands of individual songs that have been featured in the series (seriously: look at how much EA uploaded). The most popular songs by November 7 were chosen for a final list of 100 songs, of which 40 will be added to an in-game update on November 9, alongside the FIFA World Cup 2022 update.

Here's the Ultimate FIFA soundtrack on Spotify and, today, I found out that EA has a president of music, who has some high-falutin' words for us. "Every fan has their favorite FIFA tracks, and this playlist is the ultimate celebration of the music that has defined discovery, diversity, and excellence for generations of gamers," said Steve Schnur, President, Music at EA. "Originally, FIFA soundtracks reflected global culture. Then they began to influence culture. The Ultimate FIFA Soundtrack proves how and why they’ve become culture."

The top 5 songs in FIFA history, per the fans, are:

Glass Animals — Heat Waves
Avicii — The Nights
Billie Eilish — you should see me in a crown
Imagine Dragons — On Top Of The World
Bad Bunny, Bomba Estéreo — Ojitos Lindos

There is also a brand new Gorillaz track, ‘Baby Queen’, in FIFA 23, alongside which players will receive a custom Gorillaz kit on November 17. Curious what that'll look like, though it's far from the game's oddest collaboration: fictional coach Ted Lasso is now in there.

This 'ultimate soundtrack' is of course a tiny bit bittersweet. FIFA 23 marks the last entry in the long-running sports series to bear the FIFA moniker, with EA forging ahead on its own as EA Sports FC while FIFA builds bizarre experiments in Roblox.

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Rich is a games journalist with 15 years' experience, beginning his career on Edge magazine before working for a wide range of outlets, including Ars Technica, Eurogamer, GamesRadar+, Gamespot, the Guardian, IGN, the New Statesman, Polygon, and Vice. He was the editor of Kotaku UK, the UK arm of Kotaku, for three years before joining PC Gamer. He is the author of a Brief History of Video Games, a full history of the medium, which the Midwest Book Review described as "[a] must-read for serious minded game historians and curious video game connoisseurs alike."