Eighty-three songs are included in Rock Band 3, a 2010 music video game developed by Harmonix, published by MTV Games and distributed by Electronic Arts. The game, the third main title in the Rock Band series, was released in October 2010 for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii, and Nintendo DS. Rock Band 3 allows one to seven players to simulate the playing of rock music by providing the players with peripherals modeled after musical instruments. These include a guitar peripheral for lead guitar and bass gameplay, a drum kit peripheral, a keyboard peripheral, and up to three microphones. Rock Band 3 is the first game in the series to include a "Pro" mode, which allows players to use more realistic peripherals to play the game's songs note-for-note as they would be played on an actual instrument.
All of the songs included in Rock Band 3 were recorded either from master copies or live performances. Many were included to emphasize the keyboard instrument. Existing game content, including prior downloadable content and songs from the Rock Band Network, carries forward into Rock Band 3, with the full Rock Band library consisting of over 2,000 songs by the time the game was released. When Rock Band 3 was first detailed on June 11, 2010, Harmonix announced 22 of the game's songs. The next month, Harmonix used Facebook and Twitter to provide clues about additional songs for both Rock Band 3 and Dance Central, which they then confirmed to be six Rock Band tracks and three Dance Central tracks. During a video interview at the 2010 Gamescom convention, most of the setlist was inadvertently leaked because someone was scrolling through the setlist in the background. Rock Band 3's setlist was well-received by video game critics. Eurogamer's Johnny Minkley noted the contrast between it and the heavier style of Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock's setlist.