eSports to join 2022 Asian Games as a medal-eligible sport

The Olympic Council of Asia has announced a partnership with AliSports, the eSports arm of the Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba, that will introduce competitive eSports as an official and medal-eligible sporting event at the 2022 Asian Games in Hangzhou, China.

While the council didn’t detail which competitive video games would be featured in the 2022 lineup, the inclusion of eSports as an official event in a competition of this size certainly speaks volumes about the growing market for competitive games and the worldwide interest in that sector of the video game industry.

Competitive video games won’t make its official Asian Games debut until 2022, but some games are set to appear at a demonstration event during both the 18th Asian Games event next year and the upcoming Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games event this September.

Again, the council hasn’t fully detailed which titles will be making an appearance at either upcoming event, but has said that FIFA 17, an unnamed MOBA, and an unnamed RTS will be included in the upcoming Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games demonstration.