Olympic Esports Series 2023 details are out

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has announced the details of the Olympic Esports Series 2023. According to the IOC, it is "a global virtual and simulated sports competition created by the IOC and in collaboration with International Federations (IFs) and game publishers." Regardless, the choices for the games selected seem to be raising some eyebrows in surprise.

Here's the list as of now.

The initially confirmed featured games across nine sports are:

The Olympic Esports Series 2023 will culminate in live, in-person finals for the first time, with players having the opportunity to progress to the Olympic Esports Finals 2023. Taking place at Singapore’s Suntec Centre from 22 to 25 June, the finals action will be a highlight of the recently announced Olympic Esports Week 2023.

This evolved format of the IOC’s virtual competition builds on the successes of the Olympic Virtual Series. The 2021 series, which took place ahead of the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020, attracted over 250,000 participants from across 100 countries to take part in competitions. The Olympic Esports Series 2023 marks another step in supporting the development of virtual sports within the Olympic Movement, as laid out in Olympic Agenda 2020+5, and continues its collaboration with the gaming and esports communities to create new opportunities for players and fans alike.

While the Olympics, like other popular international sports events, incorporating esports as a part of its events is definitely a plus for the community, the choice of games is something that the gaming and esports community is not too happy with, considering most competitions are virtual versions of physical sports.

Considering that the biggest esports competitions in the world are for games like DOTA 2, CS:GO, League of Legends, and more, the fact that none of these titles make an appearance here is strange. Games like Chess and Sim Racing have established esports and have viewership but the rest aren't exactly super popular. The 2018 Winter Olympics incorporated more popular titles such as StarCraft 2.

Other international events like the Southeast Asian Games have more popular esports titles. At the 32nd SEA Games, there are forty types of classical sports and six esports disciplines. These are:

While it is nice that esports is gaining recognition at an international platform like the Olympics, there is still some fine-tuning needed.

Stay tuned to Esports.gg for more esports news and updates.