The International Olympic Committee has announced the inaugural Olympic Esports Games for 2027 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Sandwiched between the 2026 Winter Olympics in Italy and the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, this will be the IOC’s major foray into Esports, which the organization has been hinting at for years.
This is a two-year delay from the originally-announced late 2025 timeline.
The IOC has viewed Esports as a key to keeping the Olympics relevant for a new generation, alongside adding sports like breaking, surfing, and speed climbing to the Games.
The IOC will cooperate with the Esports World Cup Federation (EFCW) as the founding partner of the Olympic Esports Games.
The IOC has not yet announced which games will be included; 22 were included in the 2024 ESports World Cup that was also hosted in Saudi Arabia.
2024 Esports World Cup Games
- Apex Legends
- Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III
- Call of Duty: Warzone
- Counter-Strike 2
- Dota 2
- EA Sports FC 24
- Fortnite
- Garena Free Fire
- Honor of Kings
- “Mobile Legends: Bang Bang”
- League of Legends
- Overwatch 2
- PUBG: Battlegrounds
- PUBG Mobile
- Rainbow Six Siege
- Rennsport
- Rocket League
- StarCraft II
- Street Fighter 6
- Strinova
- Teamfight Tactics
- Tekken 8
A joint committee of the IOC and the SOPC has been set up to steer the Games. It is chaired by IOC Member Ser Miang Ng and co-chaired by HRH Prince Abdulaziz bin Turki Al Faisal. The committee consists of six people, three from each partner, and is currently working to define the games that will be part of the first edition of the Olympic Esports Games.
The event will create a clash-of-cultures and ask a lot of questions about how it will interact with the rest of the Olympic world.
- Will the medals won at the Olympic Esports Games be counted the same as those won at the Summer or Winter Olympics?
- How will the IOC, famous for its desire to keep political commentary and symbolism out of the Olympics, handle Esports culture, where the World Cup included criticism of Saudi Arabia’s human rights record by official commentators, and one team wearing a Pride-inspired jersey?
- Will the Olympic Esports Games remain an independent event, or will this be a testing ground for eventual integration into the Summer and/or Winter Olympic Games?
- Will events be separated by men and women? At the World Cup, only Mobile Legends: Bang Bang was.
- Will top Esports players sign on, given the $62.5 million purse at the World Cup and the IOC’s insistence that prize money is not meant for the Olympic Games?
“There is now a very clear roadmap to the historic first-ever Olympic Esports Games,” said outgoing IOC President Thomas Bach. “With the Road to the Olympic Esports Games starting this year, the Games are becoming a reality. This is further evidence of the strength of the partnership between the IOC and the SOPC in many areas.”
