Esports Returns as a Medal Sport at the Asian Games With Eleven Events and Thirteen Titles in Aichi
Twenty three nations will compete at the Aichi International Exhibition Center, where three fighting games have been folded into a single medal.
Esports will be contested as a full medal sport at the 2026 Asian Games in Japan, with eleven medal events covering thirteen game titles.
The competition runs from 23 September to 2 October 2026 at the Aichi International Exhibition Center in Tokoname, Aichi Prefecture. The Games themselves open on 19 September. Twenty three nations are entered across a programme of forty one sports.
The medal events are eFootball, Gran Turismo 7, Honor of Kings, Naraka Bladepoint, Puyo Puyo Champions, Identity V, League of Legends in an Asian Games version, Mobile Legends Bang Bang, Pokemon UNITE, PUBG Mobile in an Asian Games version, and a Competitive Martial Arts event that combines Street Fighter 6, Tekken 8 and The King of Fighters XV into a single medal contested by three-player teams.
The programme was finalised in February 2025, after the Olympic Council of Asia added esports to the 2026 calendar in July 2023. Six events held qualification tournaments in Ho Chi Minh City, Kuala Lumpur and Singapore between May and June 2026. Dota 2 was left out, with reporting attributing the decision to variable match lengths that complicate scheduling and live broadcast, while Konami's eFootball replaced EA Sports FC. The governing body is the Asian Electronic Sports Federation.