Asian Games Esports Keeps Medal Status, OCA Says

Asian Games Esports Keeps Medal Status, OCA Says

Esports is staying at the Asian Games. At least, that's what the people running them say.

On Monday 28 September, the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA), the body that governs the multi-sport event across the continent, confirmed that esports will keep its full medal status beyond the current Aichi-Nagoya Games. That statement was a direct answer to reports claiming the discipline would be cut from the programme once this edition wraps up. The OCA's position is simple: those reports are wrong.

A New Event, Not an Exit

OCA Director General Husain Al-Musallam said esports would remain part of the Asian Games, and he promised the organisation would keep backing the discipline's growth across Asia. He also stressed that the OCA has never made or issued any announcement about removing esports from the Games.

Part of the confusion likely comes from a brand new competition. On 19 September 2026, the OCA signed a host city contract with Kuwait for the first-ever Asian Esports and Mind Sports Games, scheduled for 2027. According to the OCA, the event is meant to give Asian athletes an extra stage to compete on. It will run alongside the Asian Games, not replace them.

What the OCA didn't do is explain how esports will actually look at the 2030 Asian Games in Doha. The council only said that operational plans for future editions will come later.

How Esports Got Here

The road to medal status has been fairly quick:

  • 2018 Jakarta-Palembang: esports shows up as a demonstration sport
  • 2022 Hangzhou: esports becomes an official medal event
  • 2026 Aichi-Nagoya: 11 esports titles on the schedule, including League of Legends, Pokémon UNITE, Honor of Kings and a Fighting Game Team Event
  • 2027 Kuwait: the inaugural Asian Esports and Mind Sports Games

Right now, the Japanese-hosted Games are showing what that medal status means in practice. Esports athletes are competing across the programme, with titles like Puyo Puyo Champions reaching the quarterfinal stage under the Games' medal structure. Mobile esports is part of the picture too, with the MLBB competition in Aichi-Nagoya heading toward its gold medal match.

The Paperwork Problem

Here's where it gets messy. Item 6 of the decision from the OCA Executive Board's 90th meeting, dated 26 November 2024, explicitly approved a proposal to remove esports from the Asian Games after Aichi-Nagoya. Under that plan, esports would move entirely to a separate Asian Esports and Mind Games.

That document is still available on the OCA's official website. No amendment or revocation was published alongside this week's denial.

So stakeholders are now looking at two official OCA records that say opposite things. One is a written board decision from 2024. The other is a public statement from 2026. Neither cancels the other out on paper, and that isn't the clean answer teams, players and federations were hoping for.

Our Take

For esports fans, the headline news is good: the OCA says the medals aren't going anywhere. But the unresolved 2024 decision suggests the council's plans may have shifted without the paperwork catching up, and that gap matters. Players and national federations plan around qualification cycles years in advance, and a governing body with two conflicting records makes that harder.

The Kuwait event is the more interesting piece here. A dedicated esports and mind sports competition could be a real opportunity, or it could slowly become the place esports gets moved to while the Asian Games quietly scale it back. The OCA says it's the former. It is worth watching whether the 2024 document gets formally revised, and above all what the 2030 Doha lineup looks like once it's announced. That programme, more than any statement, will show how committed the OCA really is to keeping esports at the main event.