The most popular songs and artists for gameday hype

10 best pump-up songs for gameday

• Eminem’s ‘‘Till I Collapse’ is the most popular pump-up song for sports, featuring on 830 gameday-related playlists on Spotify
• ‘Wants and Needs (feat. Lil Baby)’ by Drake is the second most popular gameday hype song on Spotify, appearing on 760 sports hype playlists
• Coming in third place is ‘POWER’ by Kanye West, featuring on 755 Spotify playlists relating to pre-game hype
• Lil Baby features on the most playlists for gameday hype songs

‘Till I Collapse’ by Eminem is the most popular gameday pump-up song on Spotify.

Odds comparison experts sidelines.io analyzed 5980 Spotify playlists with terms relating to sports and gameday hype in the title and nearly 698,344 songs to reveal the most popular tracks to get pumped up on gameday.

Taking the top spot as the best song for pre-game hype playlists is Eminem’s ‘Till I Collapse’. The track features on 830 playlists and has been streamed 1.3 billion times on Spotify. ‘Till I Collapse’ was released on Eminem’s 2002 album ‘The Eminem Show’ and quickly became a go-to workout track. Spotify highlighted that the song repeatedly appears on the most popular workout playlists year after year. The most decorated Olympian of all time, Michael Phelps, also revealed that he listened to Eminem as part of his pre-race ritual.

Drake’s ‘Wants and Needs (ft. Lil Baby)’ is the second most popular track to get in the gameday zone. Having been released on March 5^th, 2021, Drake and Lil Baby’s ‘Wants and Needs’ appears on 760 hype sports playlists with 386.5 million streams, making it the fastest-growing track on the list. Both Drake and Lil Baby are common occurrences on pump-up playlists, with Drake coming in second on Artist rankings, and Lil Baby coming in first.

‘POWER’ by Ye (formerly known as Kanye West) comes in third place. Often described as the “decade-defining song for Kanye”, ‘POWER’ is one of Ye’s most streamed songs on Spotify, with 683.6 million plays. The track appears on 755 ‘hype’ or ‘pump-up’ game day playlists, as well as featuring on many media campaigns and advertisements since its release in 2010.

Coming in fourth place is ‘Knife Talk’ by Drake, 21 Savage, and Project Pat. The track appears on 743 sports pump-up playlists and has been streamed 305.9 million times since its release in 2021.

Closing out the top five is ‘Going Bad’ by Meek Mill featuring Drake. The track was the first single released from Meek Mill’s album ‘Championship’ in early 2019 and has since been streamed 887.1 million times, appearing on 680 playlists for gameday hype. The song is the fifth track in the rankings to fall under the genre of hip-hop/rap, making it the most popular genre for gameday hype playlists.

Most popular songs for gameday hype playlists on Spotify:

Rank	Song	Artist	No. playlists
1	‘Till I Collapse	Eminem	830
2	Wants and Needs (feat. Lil Baby)	Drake	760
3	POWER	Kanye West	755
4	Knife Talk (with 21 Savage ft. Project Pat)	Drake	743
5	Going Bad (feat. Drake)	Meek Mill	680
6	MIDDLE CHILD	J. Cole	658
7	Ric Flair Drip (with Metro Boomin)	Offset	629
8	Love Sosa	Chief Keef	607
9	Yes Indeed	Lil Baby	599
10	Drip Too Hard (Lil Baby & Gunna)	Lil Baby	596

Lil Baby is the most popular artist to feature on gameday hype playlists. The artist’s songs feature on 3,839 gameday playlists, the most popular being ‘Yes Indeed’, released in 2018.

Drake comes in second place, featuring on 3,519 Spotify playlists for hype on gameday. The artist has been heavily involved in the sports industry, both showing support for teams but also receiving recognition and praise for his songs on and off the field. Many sports stars have expressed their love for the artist’s tracks, including his hometown team Toronto Raptors, with many revealing that they use Drake’s songs as the perfect hype-up tunes before big games.

The third most popular artist to get hyped to on gameday is Pop Smoke. The artist’s songs appear on 1,927 playlists, the most popular being ‘Dior’ ranking 17^th on the most popular songs for gameday hype playlists. 

Fourth place is taken by Ye, with 1,668 appearances on hype playlists, followed by Eminem with 1,612 appearances.

Most popular artists for gameday hype playlists on Spotify:

Rank	Artist	No. playlists
1	Lil Baby	3,839
2	Drake	3,519
3	Pop Smoke	1,927
4	Kanye West	1,668
5	Eminem	1,612
6	Travis Scott	1,603
7	J. Cole	1,374
8	Polo G	1,306
9	Meek Mill	1,280
10	Kendrick Lamar	921

Commenting on the findings, a spokesperson for sidelines.io said:

“Music is such an important part of many athletes’ pre-race ritual. From scientific studies through to famous sporting heroes’ personal opinions, music has proven to be a driving factor in getting players ‘hyped’ and ready to take on big challenges. It’s very interesting to see just how popular these artists and their songs are, especially the popularity of the hip-hop/rap genre for the gameday hype.”

The study was conducted by sidelines.io, which offers odds comparison, analysis, and tools to help users make data-driven decisions that get the best value on their sports bets.