The inclusion of Esports in the Olympic context is not a simple adaptation of existing practices, the difference between physical sports and digital games lies in the ownership and legal structure.
In February 2025, the International Olympic Committee officially announced the first Olympic Games in Esports, which will be held in 2027 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. This decision marks a historic moment for the first time, digital games will become part of the official Olympic competition, thus esports enters the highest level of global sports recognition.
Previously, Esports already entered history when it became an official discipline at the 2022 Asian Games (held in 2023 due to the pandemic). In Hangzhou, 475 competitors from 30 countries took part in games such as Dota 2, League of Legends and EA Sports FC Online, confirming their growing presence in international sporting events.
Sport as a public good, game as a digital product
However, the inclusion of Esports in the Olympic context is not a simple adaptation of existing practices. The difference between physical sports and digital games lies in the ownership and legal structure. While sports such as football, basketball or athletics are not under the formal ownership of one company, but are regulated by international federations that define the rules of the game, each Esport game is a product of a software company whose use, distribution and change depend solely on the will and interests of its publisher.
So, although traditional sports also have a strong commercial component (TV rights, sponsors, private clubs), their basic form remains a public good. Whereas with Esport, every click, visual display, sound and game system is copyrighted, which means that Olympic inclusion depends on direct cooperation with the legal holders of those rights.
Centuries of stability versus weeks of change
One of the key differences between traditional sports and Esports is reflected in the speed with which the rules and mechanics of the game change. In football, for example, the offside rule was defined for the first time in 1866, and significant changes were made only in 1925 and 1990, that is, every few decades. Disciplinary measures, such as yellow and red cards, were introduced only in 1970, more than a hundred years after the standardization of the first rules of the game.
In contrast, in Esports, game balancing is very common, which includes changes to rules, character performance, tactics, and mechanics. Popular titles such as League of Legends, Dota 2, Valorant or Overwatch publish so-called "patch notes" every two to four weeks. Any change can significantly affect the course of the competition, the strategy of the teams, and even the choice of professional players.
This difference is not only of a technical nature, but has deep organizational and philosophical consequences. Traditional sports are based on stability, continuity and slow reforms with a broad consensus, while Esport, as a digital product, is subject to the business and design decisions of publishers, which are implemented quickly and often without public discussion.
Such dynamics bring freshness and adaptability to Esport, but at the same time create challenges for its institutionalization in frameworks such as the Olympic Games, which require clearly defined and stable standards.
Content ethics and limits of acceptability
Although Counter-Strike 2 is one of the most famous and professionally structured titles in the world of Esports, its content directly questions its possible integration into the Olympic program. With a decades-long competitive scene, a huge player base and a developed infrastructure for tournaments, CS2 is by all technical criteria the "perfect candidate". However, the thematic basis of the game, the conflict between terrorists and anti-terrorist units, makes it incompatible with the fundamental principles of Olympic values.
At the heart of the Olympic movement are peace, cooperation between nations and the affirmation of universal values such as respect, equality and non-violence. The concept of a game in which one team is a “terrorist”, and the goal may be to plant a bomb or eliminate the opponent, cannot be neutrally transferred into the context of the Olympic message. Even the phrase “Terrorist win” (which is displayed on the screen after that team’s victory) contradicts the narratives that the Olympic Games have sought to foster since their modern founding.
The International Olympic Committee has already emphasized that games that promote violence, or are based on real war themes and violent conflicts, cannot be accepted into the program. This is not a question of technical aspects, but of the symbolic message.
Unlike games like Gran Turismo or Just Dance, which symbolize skill, fitness, and creativity, Counter-Strike uses weapons, terms, and scenarios that are related to real-world terrorism, crises, and security conflicts.
In the Esports community, such a context is viewed through the prism of competitive mechanics and reflexes, but for an Olympic institution that must communicate with the entire world, including countries affected by terrorism, wars or repression, such topics are not neutral, but politically and ethically sensitive.
The digital future of sports
Organizational requirements for hosting such an event include a LAN environment, sophisticated anti-cheat systems, infrastructure for fast analytics and a technically stable platform for international transmissions. What distinguishes this historical moment from earlier attempts to institutionalize Esports is the IOC's clear recognition that digital competition can stand side by side with sports such as swimming or athletics. The decision from 2025 not only legitimizes Esport as an equal member of the Olympic family, but also opens up space for new generations who grow up with keyboards and consoles, not with tennis rackets or basketballs.
In the end, perhaps the Olympic platform will offer what Esport has been missing the most, which is a universal organization that does not depend on corporate logic, but on the idea of a common game where everyone is equal. In a world where the border between the digital and the real is getting thinner, the question is no longer whether Esport can become a public sport, but how the sports system will learn to live with this new reality.
Current data and research show the following:
- In 2025, the global audience of eSports will exceed 640 million people, of which 318 million are dedicated fans and 322 million are casual viewers.
– More than 60% of the Esports audience is made up of people between the ages of 16 and 35, while the average age of fans of traditional sports is around 50.
- On the other hand, 77% of young people (18-34) stated that they actively follow the Summer Olympics, with a high level of interaction on digital channels (posts, comments, shares).
However, the median age of Olympic viewers in North America is in the mid-fifties, indicating a stratification of the audience and a potential decline in interest among Generation Z and millennials.
With all this, perhaps the real question is, does Esports need the Olympics, or does the Olympics need Esports?
