The President of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), Thomas Bach, announced that the Executive Board is proposing the creation of “Olympic Esports Games” for the 142nd IOC Session, which will be held during the Olympic Games Paris 2024. The IOC is already “in advanced discussions with a potential host,” the IOC added in a statement.
“With the creation of Olympic Esports Games, the IOC is taking a major step forward and is keeping up with the pace of the digital revolution,” said Bach.
The IOC’s first engagement with the esports community was organizing the Esports Forum in 2018 in Lausanne. Then, an Esports Liaison Group was created to act as a platform for engaging with esports stakeholders. This was later transformed into the IOC Esports Commission, chaired by David Lappartient. In 2021, the IOC developed its first pilot venture in esports, the Olympic Virtual Series.
In June 2023, building on what was learned from the Olympic Virtual Series, the IOC launched the Olympic Esports Week in Singapore, which brought together the Olympic and esports communities. Over 130 players from across the globe competed in ten mixed-gender category events. Including the qualifiers, the event attracted over 500,000 unique participants and generated over six million live-action views over all channels, primarily from people aged 13 to 34 (75 percent of views). Following the success of the Olympic Virtual Series last October, the IOC President tasked the Esports Commission with studying the creation of “Olympic Esports Games.”
The organization of the Olympic Esports Games is expected to happen under a new dedicated structure within the IOC, clearly separated from the organizational and financial model for the Olympic Games, explained the IOC.
