Guitar Hero: On Tour features two different setlists, one for primarily English-speaking regions including North America, the British Isles, and Australia, in addition to Japan and the Netherlands,^[4] and another for other non-English-speaking European countries, with five replacement songs;^[5] songs not in the game for that region are marked as "N/A" in the table below. Both setlists include 26 licensed tracks including five bonus tracks, with about 85% of them being master recordings; all other songs are cover versions recreated for the game.^[6] Twenty songs from the North American setlist were exclusive to this version of Guitar Hero upon release while the remaining six songs have been used throughout the series. Freezepop's "I Am Not Your Gameboy" is a bonus song that is unlocked by completing all the Guitar Duels on any difficulty in the game. Years in the table below reflect the year the song was recorded. Song in the game are presented as a series of tiers of increasing difficulty, requiring the player to complete the songs in each tier before the next tier is unlocked.^[7]

The setlist received a lukewarm reception. Game Informer stated that, compared to the setlists for other Guitar Hero games, the songs "skew away from great guitar rock and into the territory of pop/rock", and "just aren't as exciting to play".^[8] IGN commented that the setlist was "a little debatable" and "clearly being aimed at a friendlier, mainstream, pop-friendly crowd".^[7]

Decades's setlist is considered "a trek through time" by IGN, featuring sets of five songs out of a total of twenty-eight tracks. Each set focuses on a specific era of rock music, including two called "2000s" and "Modern".^[9] Each set has a specialized venue for the era.^[9] Once all the songs in the set are completed, the player is presented with a final encore song for that set while also unlocking the next set.^[9] Additional bonus tracks are unlocked for completing specific requirements in the game.^[9] All songs are master recordings as opposed to cover versions used in the previous game.^[10] The full setlist for the game is listed below. The setlists are different for the North American,^[11] UK,^[12] and European releases.^[13] Seven songs in each are exclusive to the respective versions, and are listed as "N/A" when not available for that region's release.^[10]

The Decades setlist was considered to be an improvement over the original On Tour, with more songs that would be "much more appealing to fans" of the console versions of Guitar Hero".^[14] IGN felt that the setlist "starts out bad but starts getting more enjoyable as you unlock the earlier decades".^[15]

Modern Hits's setlist features songs released since 2000. The full setlist features 28 songs, all based on master recordings.^{[16][17][18][19]} Like the previous game in the series, On Tour: Decades, the set list is different for the North American,^[20] UK,^[21] and European releases^[22] with twelve exclusive tracks in each of the respective versions (the European release has eight exclusive tracks that are the same as the UK version and four other tracks from Europe).

The Modern Hits setlist is said to cover "guitar-heavy hits from the past five years"^[23] with "plenty of noteworthy songs",^[24] and considered to be a "compelling blend of tracks".^[25]