A new report from market research firm Odyssey claims that music-based games have now overtaken sports titles to become the second most popular genre behind action, Venture Beat reports.

The US-based study claims that in 2006, 62 per cent of those surveyed claimed to play sports titles – this has now dropped to 50 per cent, which is below the 58 per cent who claimed to play music games. It also found that 53 per cent of those who play rhythm action titles are female.

“We have seen an explosion in the music simulation category,” Odysseey president and CEO Nick Donatiello stated. “The phenomenal success of the Rock Band and Guitar Hero franchises in the past year has reshaped the landscape of the console game market. While sports is still one of the critical categories, sports games are becoming relatively less important.”

The last couple of years have seen an explosion in the number of music titles hitting the market. Rhythm action games became popular during the era of PS2, with titles such as Space Channel 5, Parappa the Rapper, Frequency and Rez gaining cult status.

But recent smash hit franchises such as Guitar Hero and Rock Band, as well as the ongoing development of brands such as Sony’s SingStar, have propelled the genre to the very forefront of the market. There’s more on the way too, with high-profile releases coming from Nintendo (Wii Music) and Microsoft (Lips).