PETALING JAYA: E-sports will be an official medal sport at the 19th Asian Games Hangzhou 2022 which will be held from Sept 10-25.
The e-sports competition will feature the following games: Arena of Valor Asian Games Version, Dota 2, Dream Three Kingdoms 2, EA SPORTS FIFA branded football games, HearthStone, League of Legends, PUBG Mobile Asian Games Version, and Street Fighter V.
PUBG Mobile is co-developed by Lightspeed and Quantum Studios of Tencent Games and Krafton, based on Krafton’s PUBG IP and one of the world’s most popular mobile games.
The Asian Games is a multi-sport event that’s held every four years, in which Asia’s best athletes compete. The event is recognised by the International Olympic Committee as the second largest event of its kind, behind only the Olympics.
It paved the way for e-sports representation with its inclusion as a demonstration sport in 2018. In 2020, and now 2022, e-sports is part of the official programme and a medalled event.
As one of the largest and most accessible e-sports programs in the world, PUBG Mobile’s esports circuit has seen massive growth in 2021 with 14 new leagues and a total prize pool of US$15,000,000 for the year, the highest in mobile e-sports history.
PUBG Mobile’s inclusion in the 2022 Asian Games shows its continued worldwide growth as one of the most popular mobile e-sports games, having recently surpassed over one billion downloads worldwide.
“It’s an honour for PUBG Mobile to be included in the 2022 Asian Games,” James Yang, Director of Global Esports, Tencent Games, said.
“We are incredibly lucky to have a number of extremely talented players from several countries in the region, and can’t wait to see them compete as part of such a prestigious event. Fans of the game can look forward to exciting competition between the region’s best PUBG Mobile players as they are celebrated alongside the best athletes in Asia.”
