Kabaddi, Sepak Takraw and Eleven Esports Medal Events Are All on the Nagoya Programme Three Weeks From Now
Forty-three sports and 469 medal events open on 19 September in Aichi. Four thousand athletes are being housed on a cruise ship, and China has entered only four of the thirteen esports titles.
The 2026 Asian Games open in Nagoya on 19 September with 43 sports and 469 medal events. The programme is the clearest illustration anywhere of how sports outside the Olympic core get onto a major multi-sport calendar: kabaddi and sepak takraw sit on it as regional nominations, and esports sits on it as eleven full medal events.
The Games
| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| Dates | 19 September - 4 October 2026 |
| Host | Nagoya, Aichi Prefecture, Japan |
| Opening ceremony | 19 Sept, 18:00-20:00 JST |
| Closing ceremony | 4 Oct, 18:00-19:30 JST |
| Sports | 43 |
| Medal events | 469 |
| Delegations | All 45 OCA national Olympic committees |
Four thousand athletes are being housed aboard the cruise ship Costa Serena. Nagoya is the third Japanese host city, after Tokyo in 1958 and Hiroshima in 1994.
The esports programme
| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| Dates | 23 September - 2 October |
| Venue | Aichi Sky Expo |
| Medal events | 11 |
| Game titles | 13 |
| Nations | around 31 |
The Olympic Council of Asia added esports to the calendar on 8 July 2023, approved eleven medal events on 6 February 2025 and locked the thirteen-title lineup on 22 February 2025. The titles are eFootball, Gran Turismo 7, Honor of Kings, Naraka: Bladepoint, Puyo Puyo Champions, Identity V, League of Legends, Mobile Legends: Bang Bang, Pokemon Unite, PUBG Mobile, Street Fighter, Tekken and The King of Fighters, with the three fighting games combined into a single Competitive Martial Arts medal event. The Japan Esports Union and the Asian Electronic Sports Federation are co-organisers.
The entry pattern is the interesting part. Hong Kong has entered ten of the eleven disciplines, missing only PUBG Mobile. Malaysia and South Korea have entered nine each, Vietnam and Indonesia eight, host Japan seven - absent from both League of Legends and Mobile Legends - and China only four, skipping League of Legends entirely.
Following it on Playdash
Playdash prices the Asian Games esports events alongside its regular circuit coverage, with match winner, map handicap and medal outright markets, and Japanese hours put the whole schedule in convenient Southeast Asian daytime and evening slots.
Programme, dates, venue and participation details as published by Wikipedia's 2026 Asian Games and Asian Games esports pages and Sheep Esports. Per-title team counts are single-sourced. Kabaddi and sepak takraw schedules, venues and entered nations were not available on the pages checked and are not stated here. Correct at the time of writing on 28 August 2026.