Video video games have confirmed to be a great setting for musical avatars. Sport builders comparable to Epic Video games and Roblox recognised the potential for human superstars to carry out live shows of their video games. Cooperation between the gaming and music industries might due to this fact be mutually useful. Artists can increase their fan base by performing in entrance of the gaming neighborhood, boosting gross sales of merchandise and branded merchandise. In the meantime, sport builders can improve their person numbers and faucet into new market segments by internet hosting live shows of their video games.
Nonetheless, there are additionally factors of friction between the music and video games industries, as evidenced by the lawsuit filed by Common Publishing and different indie music publishers towards Roblox, which accused the sport developer of copyright infringement. This instance reveals that cooperation can solely succeed if sport builders dance to the tune of the foremost rights holders. In any other case, as the instance of Riot Video games reveals, sport producers should construct their very own music groups and label constructions to create and market their very own music avatars, as highlighted within the sixth and remaining a part of the collection on “Digital Music Worlds”.
Digital Music Worlds – Half 6: Music Avatars in Video Video games
Epic Video games: Celebrity-Avatare in “Fortnite”
The avatars of pop stars, which have already made profitable appearances in video video games, might be a foretaste of this. A milestone in digital live shows in video games happened on 2 February 2019. At 2 p.m. US Jap Time, 10.7 million avid gamers of the ego-shooter sport ‘Fortnite Battle Royale’ eagerly awaited the live performance by US DJ Marshmello, whose avatar carried out for ten minutes within the digital Nice Park.[1] The digital Marshmello clone carried out eight songs from his catalogue and concurrently launched the album “Marshmello Fortnite Prolonged Set” on Apple Music.[2] This efficiency was a win-win state of affairs for each the artist and Fortnite developer Epic Video games. Christopher Comstock, the DJ’s actual identify, who wears a cylindrical helmet with a smiley face paying homage to a marshmallow, was in a position to generate further income from the sale of merchandise along with selling himself. This success was additionally measurable, as a Billboard article reveals. In accordance with the article, Marshmello gained 147,000 new followers on Twitter (now X) shortly after the live performance, elevated the variety of subscribers to his YouTube channel by 1,800 per cent, and the views of his YouTube movies additionally skyrocketed by 500 per cent.[3] For Epic Video games, the ten.7 million digital live performance attendees set a brand new person report and additional elevated its recognition.
The Marshmello live performance thus grew to become the blueprint for additional digital performances by pop stars in video games. A yr later, Epic Video games collaborated with US rapper Travis Scott. Nonetheless, his 23 April 2020 efficiency in “Fortnite Battle Royale” differed considerably from the Marshmello live performance. Whereas Marshmello’s avatar stood on a conventional live performance stage and was cheered on by the digital viewers, avid gamers on the Travis Scott live performance had been drawn into his music video, “The Scotts”. The US rapper’s avatar was animated in 3D and appeared as a hologram on a digital map. It then dove into the depths of the ocean and eventually floated via area — most likely explaining the title of the live performance, “Astronomical”.[4] Travis Scott’s first look within the Fortnite sport was extra profitable than the Marshmello live performance, with 12.3 million reside viewers. After 4 extra reveals within the following days, Epic reported that the live performance had been considered 45.8 million occasions by 27.7 million distinctive customers.[5]
Epic Video games wished to capitalise on the hype and continued the looks of pop star avatars in “Fortnite Battle Royale” with Ariana Grande’s “The Rift” tour from 6 to eight August 2021. Throughout this era, the digital present was carried out 5 occasions and followers had been in a position to buy numerous digital skins of the artist and beauty gadgets on-line.[6] This was adopted by additional appearances of avatars in Fortnite video games by US rapper Eminem in December 2023,[7] heavy metallic band Metallica in June 2024[8] and a joint live performance on the finish of November 2024 by Eminem together with his colleague rappers Snoop Dogg, Ice Spice and Juice Wrld, who died in 2019 and was just about “resurrected” within the sport.[9]
Roblox: Lil Nas X
Epic Video games’ success was quickly copied by different sport builders. Just a few months after Travis Scott’s digital look in Fortnite, Lil Nas X carried out in a Roblox sport over two days in mid-November, with a complete of 4 reveals in entrance of an viewers of thousands and thousands and producing round 33 million views. Roblox additionally earned cash from followers customising their avatars with equipment comparable to cowboy hats forward of the live performance.[10] General, Roblox put in additional effort than Epic Video games, scanning the artist’s face and physique and utilizing movement seize know-how to seize his dance strikes.[11] This resulted in a really life like avatar that carried out 4 songs in numerous digital environments.[12]
For Sony Music Leisure, the efficiency by its artist was a full success, and Warner, which had acquired a minority stake in Roblox,[13] was additionally happy with the occasion. Common Music Group was the one music main to look dissatisfied, submitting a lawsuit towards Roblox for copyright infringement in June 2021. This was later joined by quite a few indie music publishers. The plaintiffs argued that Roblox was incomes tons of of thousands and thousands of {dollars} from customers importing unlicensed music to its gaming platforms.[14] The lawsuit searching for US$200 million in damages was filed by the Nationwide Music Publishers Affiliation (NMPA) and dismissed by Roblox as a significant misunderstanding.[15] The “misunderstanding” was apparently resolved in September 2021 when Roblox agreed to a settlement with the music publishers that had filed the lawsuit. BMG Rights Administration had already signed a licensing take care of the sport developer, and Sony had prolonged its strategic partnership.[16] Nonetheless, the lawsuit reveals that cooperation between the video games trade and the music trade have to be carried out in keeping with the principles of the latter. Labels and music publishers admire the PR perform that the appearances of their stars’ avatars in video games carry with them, however any infringement of copyright is straight away punished.
Riot Video games: Pentakill, KD/A, True Injury
To keep away from these points, Los Angeles-based sport developer Riot Video games selected a unique method. The corporate had nice success with the sport League of Legends, resulting in its acquisition by the Chinese language leisure group Tencent in 2011.[17] In 2014, Riot Video games created the digital heavy metallic band Pentakill, whose skins might be bought by avid gamers within the sport. Behind the band members – Karthus, Kayle, Mordekaiser, Olaf, Sona and Yorick – had been actual musicians comparable to drummer Tommy Lee from the heavy metallic band Mötley Crüe.[18] Pentakill’s first single, “Lightbringer”, was an enormous success because of the online game, and the official audio had reached 39 million views as of September 2025. The three albums by Pentakill, whose music was produced by an in-house music staff, additionally reached a large viewers.[19]
Nonetheless, the success of Pentakill was then far overshadowed by the digital Ok-pop woman group Ok/DA, created in 2018. Ok/DA was launched as a part of the opening ceremony of the “League of Legends World Championship” with the tune “Pop/Stars”, throughout which avid gamers might additionally buy skins for the 4 band members – Ahri, Akali, Evelynn and Kai’sa.[20] Behind these 4 fictional characters, nonetheless, had been the human singers Madison Beer, Jairan Burns, Miyeon and Soeyeon, the latter from the Ok-pop woman group (G)-Idle.[21] On the premiere on 3 November 2018, the 4 singers carried out along with their avatars within the reside present because of movement seize know-how.[22] The debut single went viral on each YouTube and music streaming platforms. On the day the music video was launched on YouTube, “Pop/Stars” was considered 5 million occasions, making it the most-watched debut video by a Ok-pop act.[23] Billboard additionally reported that the tune rapidly climbed to primary on the World Digital Tune Gross sales Chart.[24] As of September 2025, the music video has 643 million views on YouTube[25] and has been streamed practically 401 million occasions on Spotify since November 2018.[26] Nonetheless, a take a look at Spotify streams additionally reveals that the songs produced later from the album “All Out”, launched in 2020, have decrease streaming figures than “Pop/Stars”.[27] No new songs by KD/A have been launched since 2020.
This may be resulting from the truth that Riot Video games has turned its consideration to a brand new digital band venture. In November 2019, the hip-hop group True Injury made its first look within the re-creation of “League of Legends World Championship” with the tune “Giants”. Behind the band members Akali, Ekko, Qiayana, Senna and Yasuo, paying homage to Gorillaz, had been human singers. Lead singer Akali was voiced by Soyeon, who had already carried out as a rapper with KD/A. She was supported by Becky G, Duckwrth, Thutmose and Keke Palmer.[28] Nonetheless, True Injury was unable to duplicate the success of KD/A. Though the hip-hop group has recorded 225 million views on YouTube to this point (as of September 2025),[29] Spotify has reported ‘solely’ round 165 million streams since November 2019.[30]
In contrast to different sport builders, Riot Video games can also be trying to place itself as a fully-fledged music label. In an interview with Billboard Journal on the event of KD/A‘s first efficiency in early November 2018, the sport developer’s artistic director, Viranda Tantula, mentioned: “We’ve invested in constructing our inner music staff with each an artist centered artistic studio stuffed with composers, songwriters and producers, in addition to individuals who can carry out all of the companies that you’d see at a regular music label, comparable to distribution, A&R and promo.”[31]
Behind the digital music teams are Patrick Morales and his music staff, who’re joined by creative director Janelle Jimenez within the manufacturing of the music movies.[32] They type the core of the Riot Music Group, which has its personal music video channel on YouTube, though with round 700,000 subscribers and 82 movies, its efficiency is slightly modest.[33] The figures present that Riot Video games’ music initiatives have up to now didn’t make an influence past the gaming neighborhood. In abstract, video games generally is a extremely efficient advertising and marketing device for musicians, as demonstrated by the appearances of stars comparable to Travis Scott in Epic Video games’ “Fortnite” and Lil Nas X on Roblox. In addition to promoting the artists’ avatar skins immediately within the sport, video video games primarily function branding platforms. Nonetheless, it’s far more troublesome to determine new digital, and in the end AI-generated, acts in video games, as demonstrated by Riot Video games. Though they loved some success with Ok/DA, they had been unable to construct on it. Their objective of building themselves as a sustainable music label additionally appears to have solely been partially profitable. However, the gaming and music industries complement one another, and new types of collaboration might emerge with the additional growth o
Endnotes
[1] Rolling Stone, “Why Marshmello’s Fortnite Present Will Show ‘Revolutionary’ for the Music Trade” by Tim Ingham, February 22, 2019, accessed: 2025-09-10.
[2] Wikipedia, “Marshmello Fortnite Prolonged Set”, model of July 13, 2025, accessed: 2025-09-10.
[3] Billboard, “Marshmello’s Fornite Live performance: Breaking Down The Social Influence”, February 6, 2019, accessed: 2025-09-10.
[4] YouTube, “Travis Scott and Fortnite Current: Astronomical (Full Occasion Video)”, April 26, 2020, accessed: 2025-09-10.
[5] Forbes, “A Staggering Quantity Of Folks Noticed Fortnite’s Travis Scott ‘Astronomical’ Occasion”, April 28, 2020, accessed: 2025-09-10.
[6] The Verge, “Ariana Grande’s Fortnite tour was a second years within the making”, August 9, 2021, accessed: 2025-09-10.
[7] The Verge, “Fortnite’s Eminem live performance teased the way forward for the sport”, December 2, 2023, accessed: 2025-09-10.
[8] The Verge, “Fortnite’s Metallica live performance confirmed how sprawling the sport has turn into”, June 29, 2024, accessed: 2025-09-10.
[9] The Verge, “The way to watch Fortnite’s huge Juice WRLD, Snoop Dogg, Eminem, and Ice Spice live performance”, November 30, 2024, accessed: 2025-09-10.
[10] BBC Information, “Lil Nas X performs his first digital live performance on Roblox”, November 16, 2020, accessed: 2025-09-10.
[11] Ibid.
[12] YouTube, “The Lil Nas X Full Roblox Live performance”, December 14, 2020, accessed: 2025-09-11.
[13] Music Enterprise Worldwide, “Warner Music Group joins $520m funding spherical in online game platform Roblox”, January 7, 2021, accessed: 2025-09-11.
[14] Music Enterprise Worldwide, “Roblox sued for $200m+ by music publishers, who allege copyright infringement”, June 9, 2021, accessed: 2025-09-15.
[15] Music Enterprise Worldwide, “Roblox says $200m+ copyright lawsuit is predicated on a ‘basic misunderstanding’. Music publishers disagree”, June 10, 2021, accessed: 2025-09-15.
[16] Music Enterprise Worldwide, “Roblox strikes take care of music publishers”, September 27, 2021, accessed: 2025-09-15.
[17] Reuters, “Tencent acquires majority stake in Riot Video games”, February 5, 2011, accessed: 2025-09-15.
[18] Music Enterprise Worldwide, “Meet the digital artists backed by among the world’s largest leisure firms”, Could 22, 2023, accessed: 2025-09-15.
[19] Wikipedia, “Pentakill”, model of December 18, 2024, accessed: 2025-09-15.
[20] Dot Esports, “Riot places on an augmented actuality Ok-Pop live performance for Worlds in tandem with a brand-new music video”, November 3, 2018, accessed: 2025-09-16.
[21] Digiverse, “A brief historical past of digital artists”, October 12, 2022, accessed: 2025-09-16.
[22] Billboard, “‘League of Legends’ Unveils Digital Ok-Pop Woman Group Ok/DA, Appears to Way forward for Music in Esports”, November 5, 2018, accessed: 2025-09-16.
[23] Fox Sports activities, “League of Legends Ok-POP group Ok/DA’s debut music video hits record-breaking 13 million views on YouTube”, November 6, 2018, accessed: 2025-09-16.
[24] Billboard, “‘League of Legends’ Woman Group Earns Madison Beer, (G)I-DLE & Jaira Burns No. 1 on World Digital Tune Gross sales Chart”, November 13, 2018, accessed: 2025-09-16.
[25] YouTube, “Ok/DA – POP/STARS (ft. Madison Beer, (G)I-DLE, Jaira Burns) | Music Video – League of Legends”, November 3, 2018, accessed: 2025-09-16.
[26] Spotify, “KD/A”, n.d., accessed: 2025-09-16.
[27] Ibid.
[28] Music Enterprise Worldwide, “Meet the digital artists backed by among the world’s largest leisure firms”, Could 22, 2023, accessed: 2025-09-16.
[29] YouTube, “True Injury – Giants (mit Becky G, Keke Palmer, SOYEON von (G)I-DLE, DUCKWRTH, Thutmose)”, November 10, 2019, accessed: 2025-09-16.
[30] Spotify, “True Injury”, n.d., accessed: 2025-09-16.
[31] Billboard, “‘League of Legends’ Unveils Digital Ok-Pop Woman Group Ok/DA, Appears to Way forward for Music in Esports”, November 5, 2018, accessed: 2025-09-16.
[32] INVEN World, “Interview With Patrick Morales, Janelle Jimenez, and Toa Dunn; the Creators of the World Sensation, Ok/DA-POP/STARS”, November 27, 2018, accessed: 2025-09-16.
[33] YouTube, “Riot Video games Music”, n.d., accessed: 2025-09-16.