Long before Fortnite turned the virtual concert into a global spectacle, artists were already experimenting with performances inside digital worlds. Suzanne Vega appeared in Second Life in 2006, while Minecraft later developed its own grassroots festival culture through events such as Coalchella and Fire Festival. The format moved decisively into the mainstream in 2019, when Marshmello performed to millions of players inside Fortnite. A year later, Travis Scott’s Astronomical pushed the idea much further, abandoning the conventional stage almost entirely and turning the game world itself into part of the performance. Roblox, Wave, AdventureQuest and PUBG Mobile soon followed with their own events, featuring artists including Lil Nas X, The Weeknd, Korn, Twenty One Pilots and BLACKPINK.
These concerts have gradually become less like livestreams placed inside games and more like experiences designed specifically for virtual environments. Ariana Grande’s Rift Tour sent players flying through shifting landscapes, BLACKPINK used PUBG Mobile’s The Virtual to introduce “Ready for Love,” while Metallica’s Fuel. Fire. Fury. built individual playable sequences around the band’s songs. The 15 tracks in this playlist trace that evolution, from the early Second Life experiments to the large-scale productions of Fortnite and Roblox, showing how video games have developed into a genuine performance space where music, animation, audience participation and gameplay increasingly overlap.
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