Report: Japan May Host 2026 Olympic Esports Games

The International Olympic Committee is looking at creating an Olympic Esports Games in 2026 and have it hosted in Japan, Kyodo News reported recently.

The report said “Japanese officials are expected to step up talks in 2024 at the IOC’s request.” The IOC has committed to an expanded interest in esports, with President Thomas Bach announcing at the IOC’s session in Mumbai in October that the IOC Esports Commission would study the possibility of creating an Olympic Esports Games.

The Esports Commission is chaired by IOC member David Lappartient, who led the IOC Esports Liaison Group which organized Olympic Esports Week, which was held for the first time in Singapore in June 2023 and invited both professional and amateur players from across the world to compete in virtual sports competitions.

Japan hosted the real-life Olympic and Paralympic Summer Games in 2021 in Tokyo, an event that was delayed one year because of the pandemic. Sapporo was interested in bidding for a future Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games but exploding organization costs to hold the Tokyo Games and corruption revealed after the event sunk public opinion to the point where Sapporo organizers finally backed out of the bidding.