Rhythm game or rhythm action is a genre of music-themed action video game that challenges a player's sense of rhythm. Games in the genre typically focus on dance or the simulated performance of musical instruments, and require players to press buttons in a sequence dictated on the screen. Doing so causes the game's protagonist or avatar to dance or to play their instrument correctly, which increases the player's score. Many rhythm games include multiplayer modes in which players compete for the highest score or cooperate as a simulated musical ensemble. While conventional control pads may be used as input devices, rhythm games often feature novel game controllers that emulate musical instruments. Certain dance-based games require the player to physically dance on a mat, with pressure-sensitive pads acting as the input device.

The 1996 title PaRappa the Rapper has been deemed the first influential rhythm game, whose basic template formed the core of subsequent games in the genre. In 1997, Konami's Beatmania sparked an emergent market for rhythm games in Japan. The company's music division, Bemani, released a series of music-based games over the next several years. The most successful of these was the dance mat game Dance Dance Revolution, which was the only Bemani title to achieve large-scale success outside of Japan. Imitations of Dance Dance Revolution flooded the genre until the release of Harmonix's Guitar Hero, which was inspired by similar, earlier Japanese games. However, Harmonix added rock music aimed at a Western audience. The game revitalized the rhythm genre and spawned the hugely successful Guitar Hero and Rock Band franchises, whose popularity expanded the console video game market and its demographics. The games provided a new source of revenue for the artists whose music appeared on the soundtracks.