Every Hans Zimmer game: 22 credits, but new music for only seven

MobyGames lists Hans Zimmer in the credits of 22 games. He wrote new music for seven of them. His first real game job was the main theme of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 in 2009, and his first full score for a big game only arrived in 2024 with Dragon Age: The Veilguard, written together with Lorne Balfe. Everything else on the list is either film music the developers licensed or a producer credit.

That is exactly where most "Hans Zimmer games" lists go wrong. They include The Lion King from 1994, Kingdom Hearts III, Kung Fu Panda and even Dune: Awakening, and he wrote nothing new for any of them. Below is every game in order: what he actually did, who wrote the rest, how critics took it and where you can buy it today. I checked roles against MobyGames credits and press releases from Activision, EA, BioWare and Tencent. Scores come from Metacritic, Steam reviews and prices are from 6 October 2026. The full table is near the end.

1994-2007: The Lion King, pirates and The Simpsons, mostly without Zimmer

The 1994 Lion King game by Westwood and Virgin almost always shows up on his list. It shouldn't. The film music was rearranged by the game's own composers: Frank Klepacki and Dwight Okahara on the SNES, Matt Furniss on the Genesis, Allister Brimble on DOS and Amiga. Zimmer isn't in the credits. Klepacki later said Zimmer complimented his rework, and that is about as close as Zimmer got to the game.

The other games from those years work the same way. Disney's Activity Center: The Lion King (1996) uses the film score and says so in the credits. Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest on PSP, DS and GBA (2006) uses the film music too. Kingdom Hearts II plays He's a Pirate in Port Royal, but that is Yoko Shimomura's arrangement of a piece by Klaus Badelt, Geoff Zanelli and Zimmer.

The one real puzzle is The Simpsons Game (2007). Its credits say "Music by" and list four names: Hans Zimmer, James Michael Dooley, Christopher Lennertz and Timothy Michael Wynn. The game came out on 30 October 2007, three months after The Simpsons Movie, which Zimmer scored. Yet Reuters in 2009 and Activision in 2010 both called Modern Warfare 2 his first game. My guess is that the movie themes went into the game and the other three wrote the new material, but I couldn't find anything that confirms it. It scored 71 on Xbox 360, and there was no PC version.

Modern Warfare 2, November 2009: his first game and a BAFTA nomination

On 27 August 2009 Reuters reported that the Oscar winner was writing music for his first video game. Modern Warfare 2 launched on 10 November on PC, PS3 and Xbox 360. Zimmer gets two credits: main themes and music producer. The score itself is by Lorne Balfe, with additional music by Mark Mancina, Nick Phoenix and Thomas Bergersen (the last two are Two Steps from Hell).

The easiest place to hear his theme is the Opening Titles track. The soundtrack album followed on 1 June 2010, 17 tracks for $9.99. At the 2010 BAFTA Games Awards the music was nominated for Original Score, a shared nod for Zimmer and Balfe. Before launch he told USA Today that the "are games art" argument was already over, and compared it to how theatre once looked down on film.

Critics gave it 86 on PC and 94 on consoles. The 2009 original sells on Steam for $19.99 and sits at 93.4% positive out of 61,146 reviews, the best result of any game here. The 2020 Campaign Remastered got no new music, it reuses the same score. It came out at the end of March 2020 on PS4 and on 30 April on PC and Xbox One, PC through Battle.net only, so you won't find it on Steam. It scored 71 on PS4. The newest entry in the series is a very different beast, and I covered it in my piece on the Modern Warfare 4 beta PC requirements.

Crysis 2, March 2011: his theme was announced six days before launch

EA announced Zimmer's involvement on 16 March 2011. The game came out in North America on 22 March. Six days. Engadget and MCV quoted him at the time: he was drawn in by Crytek's passion for the project and the world the studio had built, and he was happy with how the collaboration turned out.

Here is how the credits split it. Main theme by Zimmer, and a separate "Music composed by" line for Zimmer and Balfe. The bulk of the score came from Crytek music director Borislav Slavov and Tilman Sillescu, with additional music by Andrew Kawczynski. If you come across the "Crysis 2 Making the Music" video from 2010, don't look for Zimmer in it: it was shot before he joined.

Scores: 86 on PC and 84 on Xbox 360. Steam has two versions. Crysis 2 Maximum Edition lists at $29.99, has 85.3% positive out of 13,882 reviews and on 6 October costs $7.49. Crysis 2 Remastered is also $29.99, $11.99 on sale, with 88.9% out of 9,587.

Skylanders, October 2011: one theme for four games

For Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure, Activision hired Zimmer's studio Remote Control Productions, and the credits say so. Zimmer wrote the main theme and produced the score, Balfe composed it, with additional music by Andrew Kawczynski and Pete Adams. The toys-to-life game launched on 13-16 October 2011 on Wii, PS3, Xbox 360, 3DS, PC and Mac. On 25 October the official channel posted an interview in which Zimmer talks about writing the theme himself.

After that the theme took on a life of its own. Skylanders Giants (2012), Swap Force (2013) and Trap Team (2014) all credit "Skylanders Spyro's Adventure Main Theme by Hans Zimmer", while Balfe wrote the music for those games. So Zimmer appears in four Skylanders games and wrote music for one. The first game scored 81 on Wii. The series isn't on Steam at all, it's discs and figures from the second-hand market.

Pirates, Superman and Batman, 2011-2014: music from the films

LEGO Pirates of the Caribbean (May 2011) credits every track to its writers: He's a Pirate, The Medallion Calls, The Kraken, Davy Jones, Jack Sparrow. Zimmer wrote nothing new for it. Fun detail: the score of the first film is officially Klaus Badelt's, with Zimmer as co-writer on some themes. The game scored 73 on PC and has 90.9% positive out of 5,756 Steam reviews, $19.99 full price and $5.99 right now.

Superman is the funnier case. The Man of Steel mobile game (summer 2013, Phosphor Games and Warner Bros.) credits "Music Themes Hans Zimmer", but the game's music was written by Steve Mazzaro from the same Remote Control. A year later those themes from the mobile game moved into LEGO Batman 3: Beyond Gotham, credited as such. Man of Steel scored 60 on iOS. LEGO Batman 3 has 88.4% positive out of 10,586 Steam reviews and costs $19.99.

Beyond: Two Souls, October 2013: producer, not composer

Sony caused this mix-up itself. The URL of the PlayStation Blog post from 22 August 2013 promises a soundtrack "composed by Hans Zimmer and Lorne Balfe", while the text is more precise: Balfe composed it and Zimmer produced it. The game's credits say the same. In the official making-of video the two of them sit side by side.

The Quantic Dream game came out on PS3 on 8 October 2013, on PS4 in November 2015, on PC through the Epic Games Store in July 2019 and on Steam on 18 June 2020. It scored 76 on PC and 70 on PS3. On Steam it has 87.6% positive out of 43,916 reviews, lists at $19.99, and on 6 October it costs $0.99. There's no cheaper way to hear Balfe's work with Zimmer looking over his shoulder.

Arena of Valor and Honor of Kings, 2016-2025: Zimmer in a mobile MOBA

This is the most unexpected line on his CV. Zimmer wrote original music for Tencent's mobile MOBA, called Honor of Kings in China and released in the West as Arena of Valor. In August 2017 Garena's official channel said the login screen music was his, and Pocket Gamer wrote at the European launch on 10 August 2017 that Zimmer had composed an original soundtrack for the game. In 2016 the Hollywood Music in Media Awards nominated Zimmer and Balfe for a Tencent mobile game listed under the working title Ngame.

Why Tencent wanted him was explained by Sam Yang of TiMi Studio in a January 2020 interview with Flickering Myth. Two reasons: the team were fans of his work, and they needed a properly epic style.

The follow-up came in 2025. On 21 November the official Honor of Kings Audio channel posted a video for the game's tenth anniversary: Zimmer reworked his old themes for the lobby music (Main Theme, Let's Play Again and Big Creature) and played piano, electric guitar and synths on the recording. That video is the only source, the press didn't cover it, so I'm going by its description. Honor of Kings is free on iOS and Android, scored 78 on iOS, and the global version launched on 20 June 2024.

FIFA 19, September 2018: the Champions League anthem and a story mode

Zimmer did two things for FIFA 19. With Balfe he wrote the music for the story mode The Journey: Champions, which the credits and EA's soundtrack page confirm. And with rapper Vince Staples he remixed the Champions League anthem, the version you hear in the E3 2018 reveal trailer. The anthem itself was written by Tony Britten in 1992 after Handel's "Zadok the Priest".

The game came out on 28 September 2018. It scored 83 on PS4 and 81 on PC, though the PC version has only six reviews. You can't buy FIFA 19 digitally today: around 27 September 2023 EA pulled every game from FIFA 14 to FIFA 23 from digital stores when the licence ended. Only discs are left.

Dragon Age: The Veilguard, October 2024: his first full game score

On 1 October 2024 BioWare announced that Hans Zimmer and Lorne Balfe had co-composed the Dragon Age: The Veilguard soundtrack. The credits read "Music By Hans Zimmer, Lorne Balfe". In the same announcement Zimmer said epic stories lend themselves to epic scores and that The Veilguard never left him short of inspiration.

EA's post also called The Veilguard Zimmer's first video game soundtrack in nearly ten years. That's EA's line, and it doesn't square with FIFA 19 six years earlier, where Zimmer and Balfe scored the story mode. The game itself launched on 31 October 2024 on PS5, Xbox Series X|S and PC, and the soundtrack album followed on 1 November through Lakeshore Records.

Critics gave it 76 on PC and 82 on PS5. Steam players are tougher: 68.1% positive out of 45,163 reviews, rated "Mixed", the lowest result on this list. Full price is $59.99, and on 6 October it sells for $20.99.

Ashfall and Call of Duty: Mobile: the extras and what's coming

Two entries most lists skip. In April 2024 Call of Duty: Mobile added a Mythic skin for the MG42, and Zimmer wrote the music for its inspect video. I couldn't confirm how long the piece is, but it was nominated at the 2024 Hollywood Music in Media Awards together with TiMi's composers.

Ashfall from NetEase and Legendary Star Studio was announced at Tokyo Game Show in September 2022 with a soundtrack by Zimmer and Steve Mazzaro, produced by Fallout composer Inon Zur. A closed beta ran in August 2023. As of 6 October 2026 its Steam page still says "Coming soon" with no date. Apart from the Honor of Kings rework, I found no new Zimmer game projects in 2025 or 2026.

What doesn't belong on the list: Kingdom Hearts III, Kung Fu Panda and Dune

The most common mistakes, each one checked:

Lorne Balfe: who actually wrote most of it

Read the credits in a row and a pattern jumps out. Next to Zimmer, almost every time, is Lorne Balfe, an alumnus of his Remote Control Productions: the Modern Warfare 2 score, co-writer on Crysis 2, all of Skylanders, Beyond: Two Souls, the Tencent mobile game, FIFA 19 and The Veilguard. Balfe has plenty of games of his own too, Assassin's Creed Revelations (2011) and Assassin's Creed III (2012) among them.

It usually works like this: Zimmer brings the main theme and the name, Balfe and other studio composers write the remaining hours of music. Nothing wrong with that, it's how his studio works in film too. It's just worth knowing that a "Hans Zimmer soundtrack" in a game usually means three or four minutes of his theme. Mick Gordon went a similar road, only on his own, and I went through all of his games separately.

Every Hans Zimmer game: the table

Scores and reviews: critics love the themes, Steam doesn't love The Veilguard

Funny thing: the games critics rated highest are the ones where Zimmer only wrote the theme, Modern Warfare 2 and Crysis 2, both 86 on PC. The one game where he wrote the whole score landed in the middle. These are scores for the whole game, not the music, so they say nothing about the music itself.

On Steam the gap is wider. Modern Warfare 2 sits at 93.4%, The Veilguard at 68.1%, with a comparable number of reviews, 61 and 45 thousand.

Where to start in 2026

More from this series: every Akira Yamaoka game, from the Silent Hill composer, and every John Carpenter game, another film composer who ended up writing for games.

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