The Splatoon Lobby Theme You Can't Stop Hearing
If you've played Splatoon or Splatoon 2, you already know the track. The one that plays every time you're waiting in the lobby before a match starts. People have been hunting down its name, credits, and where to actually download it for years. The straightforward answer is that it's officially titled "Splat the Most Exciting Artists of All Time" and it comes directly from the Splatoon 2 soundtrack composed by various artists under Nintendo's team. This is the main lobby track in Splatoon 2. It replaced the original Splatoon theme when the sequel launched on the Switch. The composition is a mashup-style instrumental that combines elements from earlier Splatoon tracks into something faster and more layered. The credits list multiple composers working under Nintendo Sound Division. You'll see names like Tomonori Sawada and others attached to the broader soundtrack. I remember spending way too long trying to find a clean rip of this track back when the game first came out. Most sites had either low-quality recordings from gameplay footage or someone's messy YouTube capture with background noise. The actual proper version is available as part of the Splatoon 2 Original Soundtrack, which Nintendo has released through their official channels. If you want the highest quality source, look for the eShop release or the CD version rather than hunting through random files on file-sharing sites.
One thing people consistently get wrong is assuming this is a single composer's work. It isn't. The track pulls from motifs across the entire Splatoon series, which is why it sounds familiar even if you've never actively listened to it before. That's by design. The in-game purpose is to make you feel like you're about to enter a match, so it deliberately echoes earlier musical themes you'd recognize from the first game.
How to Get the Track Legitimately
The most reliable method is purchasing the Splatoon 2 Original Soundtrack through the Nintendo eShop on your Switch. From the main menu, go to the eShop, search for "Splatoon 2 Original Soundtrack," and buy it. It costs around $15 USD. Once downloaded, you can browse individual tracks and set them as your lounge music. The track you want is typically listed under the lobby or title screen section of the album. Alternatively, the physical CD was released through Nintendo's official store and occasionally appears on Amazon or other retailers, though availability varies. The digital OST is the consistent option at this point. There's a common shortcut some people try — going to YouTube and downloading an audio extract from a gameplay video. I won't recommend this because the quality suffers significantly. You're usually getting a recording of your TV or console output, not the actual track. The bitrate drops, you pick up controller button presses and chat audio, and it just sounds muddy. The eShop version in full lossless quality is noticeably better and takes up minimal space.
Why It Sounds Different In-Game Than Online Rips
The in-game version has dynamic layering. When you're in a ranked match lobby versus a casual lobby, subtle differences in the mix play out. The track also crossfades when the countdown begins. This is why some rips sound slightly off — they captured a moment mid-transition rather than the clean loop point. If you're trying to use this for a project and need the exact loopable version, the soundtrack file is the only clean source. Game captures will almost always have minor timing artifacts from the engine's mixing layer. I hit this problem once when I was editing a video and needed the track to loop seamlessly. Every rip I found had a audible click or volume dip at the loop point because it was pulled from a video file. The workaround was simple — I bought the OST, extracted the WAV file directly from the game's audio directory using a standard Switch homebrew tool, and imported that into my editor. Zero artifacts. took about five minutes once I had the right tool set up.
What to Watch Out For
Not every site claiming to offer this track is legitimate. Several fan sites host downloads that are actually slowed down or pitch-shifted versions. If the track sounds slower than you remember, that's one of the giveaways. The original tempo is roughly 140 BPM. Anything noticeably slower is a fan edit, not the real thing. Another red flag is file size — a proper stereo WAV of this track runs around 10 to 12 megabytes. Files under 3 megabytes are almost certainly compressed to death or from a low-quality video source. The physical soundtrack CD also has a track listing that doesn't always match what you see in the game. Some lobby variations are bundled as separate tracks on the album. If you're looking for a specific version, check the track numbers in the OST booklet rather than assuming the title alone will get you there. There's no official standalone release of just this one track. Nintendo hasn't issued it as a single. If you see a listing that claims to sell just the lobby theme, it's either a bootleg or someone reselling a ripped file. The full album is the only official route.
This track has become kind of a cultural touchstone at this point. People sample it in fan edits, streamers use it as background music, and it shows up in rhythm game communities. The reason it works so well for all of that is the arrangement itself — it's dense without being cluttered, and the instrumentation leaves enough room in the mix for other elements to sit alongside it. That's probably why it's held up better than some other Nintendo lobby themes that sound dated after a few years. If you just want to hear it again, firing up Splatoon 2 and jumping into any lobby will do the trick. No downloads needed. But if you're after the actual file for editing, sampling, or just having it outside the game, the eShop OST is the answer. Everything else is a compromise.
