The Hollywood Music in Media Awards’ 2026 nominations have arrived with a substantial gaming presence, recognizing original scores, songs, music supervision, trailers, soundtrack albums, concerts and special projects alongside music made for film and television. Winners are scheduled to be revealed on Nov. 18 at the Avalon Hollywood.

For players, the most immediately relevant sections are the awards devoted to console and PC game scores, game songs, mobile games, and video-game music supervision. The wider nominations also show how often game music now travels beyond the moment-to-moment soundtrack: into album releases, promotional trailers, concerts and collaborations that can shape a game’s identity just as clearly as its art direction or mechanics.

That breadth is worth emphasizing. “Score” and “song” are not interchangeable categories, while music supervision is a different craft again. The nominations recognize each as a distinct contribution to visual media, giving a fuller picture of how music reaches an audience in games.

The console and PC score nominees

The Score — Video Game (Console & PC) field includes eight nominated projects:

  • 007 First Light — The Flight, comprising Joe Henson and Alexis Smith
  • Aeruta — Red Eyes Studios, Alice Lee, Michael Wyckoff, Rhyan D’Errico and Patrick John Lu
  • Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced — Brian Tyler and Stephen Lukach
  • Cairn — The Toxic Avenger, Martin Stig Andersen and Gildaa
  • Crimson Desert — Hwiman Ryu and Inro Joo
  • Fallen Aces: Episode 2 — Josh Barron
  • Rayman Legends Retold — Christophe Héral, Grant Kirkhope and Billy Martin
  • Star Wars: Zero Company — Gordy Haab

In awards terminology, a score means the music written to support the work rather than a standalone song with a conventional vocal performance. In a game, that can encompass the music underpinning exploration, action, menus, cutscenes and transitions. The category’s nominees span projects with individual composers, duos and larger writing teams, a reminder that no single production model defines game scoring.

The nominated slate also reaches across very different game worlds: espionage in 007 First Light, a pirate-era return in Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced, the fantasy setting of Crimson Desert, the stylized Fallen Aces: Episode 2, and franchise work attached to Rayman and Star Wars. The awards do not provide a single stylistic throughline here; they instead recognize the music as part of each project’s own audiovisual language.

Original game songs bring artists and composers together

The separate Song — Video Game (Console & PC) category is centered on individual tracks. Those nominees are:

  • “First Light” from 007 First Light, written by Lana Del Rey and David Arnold and performed by Lana Del Rey
  • “Lone Survivor” from Delta Force, written by Jules Mathieu and Melqui Alvarez and performed by Delta Force and Blaze Johnson Jr.
  • “pain Is Salvation” from Europa Universalis V, written by Håkan Glänte and performed by the Norrköping Symphony Orchestra, Göteborg Baroque and the Gothenburg Symphony Vocal Ensemble
  • “Salvation” from League of Legends, written by J.D. Spears and Mary Clare Clemons (Forts), performed by Mary Clare Clemons (Forts)
  • “Shining Star” from Marvel Rivals, written by Nao and Danny Koo and performed by Chrissy Costanza
  • “The Wanderer” from Marvel’s Wolverine, written and performed by Hudson Freeman and David Fleming
  • “Voyaging Star’s Farewell” from Wuthering Waves, with music by Jixwang, lyrics by Xulai, and a performance by Tarokiki featuring Emi Evans

A song award focuses on a credited composition and performance, rather than the entire body of music for a game. This makes the field especially useful for recognizing collaborations where songwriters, vocalists and game composers all have separate roles. The nominations range from Lana Del Rey and David Arnold’s work on 007 First Light to ensemble-backed music for Europa Universalis V, plus songs tied to League of Legends, Marvel Rivals and Wuthering Waves.

Related coverage includes Hollywood Music in Media Awards 2026 Nominees Include Taylor Swift, Ludwig Göransson and Mina Samy.

007 First Light appears in both major console-and-PC game music categories, with The Flight nominated for score and “First Light” nominated for song. That does not mean the awards treat the two achievements as duplicates: it highlights two forms of music created for the same game, one concerning the score as a whole and the other a specific song.

Mobile games receive their own combined field

The awards also list a Song/Score — Mobile Video Game category. Unlike the split console-and-PC fields, this is a combined category, placing songs and score work within the same mobile-game lineup. Nominees are Call of Duty: Mobile for Jade Audio and Vladyslav Saychenko; Dear van Gogh for Kevin Penkin; Mobile Games: Bang Bang for Mason Lieberman, Casey Lee Williams and Zekai Liu; Monster Hunter Outlanders for Tadayoshi Makino and Yuko Komiyama; Onmyojigame for 2Wei, Weixuan Yan, Albert Chang and Al Ho; Reverse: 1999 for Ricky Lee and April Wang; The Division Resurgence for Astraea, Feel For Music and Sonic Mayhem; and Wuthering Waves for Sihan.

The combined designation matters because it is a broader measure of a mobile title’s musical contribution. A nomination may encompass a project’s song, its underscore or music that operates across both spaces. It also gives the awards room to acknowledge a wide set of mobile productions without forcing every eligible piece into a format designed for console and PC releases.

Wuthering Waves is represented twice across the game-music nominations: “Voyaging Star’s Farewell” is up for console-and-PC game song, while Sihan is nominated in the mobile song/score field. The project is also named in the Live Concert for Visual Media nominations through the Wuthering Waves Concert Tour from Kuro Games. Together, those entries demonstrate the several ways a game’s music can be presented and recognized.

Music supervision is about selection and placement

One of the more easily misunderstood categories is Music Supervision — Video Game. A music supervisor’s work is distinct from composing an original score. Where a composer writes music, supervision can involve selecting, coordinating and placing music within a project. The nominees are:

  • Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced — Bénédicte Ouimet and Erik-jon Evangelista
  • Doom: The Dark Ages | Revelations — David Kizale and Hugo Martin
  • Overwatch — ongoing seasonal content and various collaborations including Yoasobi and Le Sserafim
  • Rayman Legends Retold — Manu Bachet
  • Sea of Remnants — cutscene music, Jingfei Wang, Sibo Huang and Kaifan Ye
  • Star Wars: Zero Company — Steve Schnur
  • Valorant — Jonny Altepeter

This list makes clear that game music is not confined to a linear, one-time campaign soundtrack. The nomination for Overwatch explicitly covers ongoing seasonal content and collaborations, while Sea of Remnants identifies cutscene music. Both descriptions point to the specialized context of the musical work being honored.

Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced, Rayman Legends Retold and Star Wars: Zero Company all appear in both score and supervision categories. The crossover should be read as recognition of different disciplines around the same games, not simply repeat nominations for one piece of music.

Trailers, albums and concerts extend the game-music conversation

Several other nomination areas further widen the game connection. The Music Design — Trailer field includes Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced by Woodkid; Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 Reveal Trailer by 2Wei and Hour To Home; Destiny 2 by Brendon Williams; Guild Wars 3 by Kazuma Jinnouchi; and Valorant by Grabbitz, Oli Sykes and Courtney Laplante.

Trailer music design is not necessarily the same music a player will hear during gameplay. Its purpose is more specifically to support a short promotional piece: setting pace, building anticipation and giving an announcement or reveal its immediate sonic character. That distinction is why trailer work stands beside, rather than inside, score categories.

The Soundtrack Album category includes Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced from Ubisoft Music and Star Wars: Galactic Racer from Walt Disney Records, alongside album releases for Moon: Nature’s Secret Force, Prehistoric Planet: Ice Age and Ted Lasso Season 4. An album nomination addresses the released listening experience, which is different again from scoring the game itself.

Game-related music also appears in Song/Score — Commercial Advertisement, where Angry Birds 3 is nominated for Heitor Pereira and Sea of Remnants is nominated for Al Ho and Sibo Huang. Elsewhere, the special-project field includes League of Legends “Know My Name” by True Damage and Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker The Music Game, credited to Music For Musical Jigsaw Puzzles and Sound Design For Nuthouse.

For a recent example of game culture moving through music recognition, the wider entertainment awards calendar continues to overlap with artists and projects that cross formats. These nominations make a similar point from the game side: music for visual media increasingly moves among games, albums, advertising, live performance and collaborations.

A broad award slate, with games firmly included

The ceremony honors composers, songwriters, music supervisors and artists across film, television, video games and other visual media. This year’s larger nomination list includes prominent film and television names such as Taylor Swift, Daniel Pemberton, Mina Samy and Ludwig Göransson, but its gaming categories stand on their own as a detailed record of credited work across platforms and formats.

For players, the practical takeaway is simple: watch the game-specific categories, but do not stop there. A project may be represented through its score, an original song, music supervision, a trailer, a soundtrack album or a concert. The nominations for 007 First Light, Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced, Wuthering Waves, Rayman Legends Retold, Star Wars: Zero Company and Valorant show precisely how those lanes can overlap while recognizing distinct work.