When Guitar Hero World Tour, the fourth music video game in the Guitar Hero series, was released in late 2008, it didn't quite resemble its predecessors. While this version focused on emulating the included music tracks using special game controllers, it also included drums and vocals, as well as a music studio for creating your own songs.

The Guitar Hero World Tour track list consists of 86 songs from artists and bands including Blink-182, Bon Jovi, Beastie Boys, Nirvana, Metallica, Michael Jackson, Rise Against, and many more. When the game first released, players could also purchase and download additional songs, but that downloadable content is no longer available.