Every Song on the Tron: Ares Soundtrack Fueling Jared Leto’s Sequel as It Dominates Billboard
Before Tron: Ares hits theaters, Jared Leto’s sci-fi epic is already riding a surge of hype as Nine Inch Nails’ blistering soundtrack storms the charts, drawing raves as some of the band’s finest work across Rock & Alternative and beyond.
Tron: Ares is still a ways off, but its soundtrack is already doing laps around the charts. Nine Inch Nails dropped the album ahead of the movie, and fans are treating it like a top-tier NIN release. If you like your film scores moody, aggressive, and occasionally blissed out, this one swings hard in all directions.
The chart picture (aka: NIN still got it)
The Tron: Ares album opened in the Billboard 200 Top 10 — the band’s first time back in that tier in over a decade. It also launched at No. 1 on four different charts: Top Rock & Alternative Albums, Top Alternative Albums, Top Dance Albums, and Vinyl Albums. Yes, seeing Nine Inch Nails on a dance chart is a little inside-baseball weird, but soundtracks tend to bend those genre walls.
The breakout track so far is 'As Alive As You Need Me To Be'. It has already racked up 7 million plays since the album landed and debuted in the Top 10 on both Alternative Airplay and Mainstream Rock Airplay. For NIN, it’s their highest Alternative Airplay peak to date.
The full Tron: Ares tracklist
- Init - 2:07
- Forked Reality - 1:50
- As Alive As You Need Me To Be - 3:57
- Echoes - 3:46
- This Changes Everything - 2:59
- In The Image Of - 1:33
- I Know You Can Feel It - 5:21
- Permanence - 1:29
- Infiltrator - 2:47
- 100% Expendable - 3:54
- Still Remains - 1:54
- Who Wants To Live Forever? - 5:50
- Building Better Worlds - 2:11
- Target Identified - 3:24
- Daemonize - 5:09
- Empathetic Response - 2:09
- What Have You Done? - 2:14
- A Question Of Trust - 1:20
- Ghost In The Machine - 1:39
- No Going Back - 1:55
- Nemesis - 1:45
- New Directive - 2:45
- Out In The World - 1:05
- Shadow Over Me - 3:55
About that Tron music legacy
Tron: Legacy (2010) came in with average reviews but solid box office, and then the Daft Punk score basically became the movie’s cultural footprint. That album had 30-plus tracks and peaked at No. 6 on the Billboard 200. Given how Tron: Ares is already charting, it looks like Nine Inch Nails is carrying that tradition of the soundtrack being the franchise’s not-so-secret weapon.
Where the franchise stands (and where to watch)
If you want a quick refresher: Steven Lisberger’s original Tron sits at a 6.7/10 on IMDb and 65% on Rotten Tomatoes; Joseph Kosinski’s Tron: Legacy is at 6.8/10 on IMDb and 51% on Rotten Tomatoes. Both are streaming on Disney+ if you feel like a neon crash course before Jared Leto hits the Grid.
Release timing
Tron: Ares opens October 10, 2025 in the U.S. We will see if the movie matches the soundtrack’s heat — the bar is high, and that’s a good problem to have.