Guitar Hero: World Tour is comprised entirely of master recordings from some of the greatest classic and modern rock bands of all-time including Van Halen, Linkin Park, The Eagles, Sublime and many more. Additionally, the game will offer significantly more localized downloadable music than ever before on allof the next-generation consoles. Budding rock stars will also be given creative license to fully customize everything from their characters' appearance and instruments to their band's logo and album covers.

Guitar Hero World Tour will build on the existing gameplay from previous Guitar Hero games, in which players attempt to simulate the playing of rock music using special guitar-shaped controllers. World Tour expands beyond the core guitar-based gameplay by introducing the ability to play drums or sing vocals, and supporting the ability for up to four players to play together in a virtual band through these different instruments. Successfully hitting notes will increase the player's or band's score, as well as increase the "Rock Meter" that represents the song's performance. Missed notes are not scored and negatively affect the Rock Meter. If the Rock Meter drops too low, the song will end prematurely, with the virtual audience booing the band off stage. Successfully completing a song will garner a one to five-star rating based on the accumulated score, and rewards such as in-game money to be used to buy new guitars and outfits for characters.