Aichi Sky Expo signs on as the esports venue of the 2026 Asian Games

Esports at the 2026 Asian Games now has a home. The Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games Organising Committee (AINAGOC) signed a venue usage agreement with Aichi Sky Expo on March 30, the Olympic Council of Asia announced on April 7, 2026. The hall beside Chubu Centrair International Airport will host esports, breaking, BMX freestyle and fencing during the 20th Asian Games, from September 19 to October 4, 2026.

The signing gives a precise address to the eleven esports titles approved for the Games a year earlier. It also confirms a choice that sets Aichi-Nagoya apart from the last edition: instead of a purpose-built esports arena, the competitions will be played inside one of the largest exhibition centers in Japan, shared with three other sports.

Olympic Council of Asia release of April 7, 2026 on the Aichi Sky Expo agreement.

Three parties around one hall

The agreement was signed on March 30 at Aichi Sky Expo itself. The release names two partners beside the organizing committee: Aichi Prefecture, which owns the facility, and the Aichi International Exhibition Centre (AICEC), which operates it. The organizing committee, known by its initials AINAGOC, is the body in charge of staging the Games in Aichi and Nagoya.

The Olympic Council of Asia describes the document as a venue usage agreement, covering the use of the facility for the four sports during the Games. The release does not give its financial terms or the exact period of use.

"Preparations for the Games have taken another step forward," the organizing committee said after the signing. It added that it looked forward to the moments the venue would hold during the Games.

An exhibition center at the airport

Aichi Sky Expo stands next to Chubu Centrair International Airport in Aichi Prefecture. According to the Olympic Council of Asia, it was the first exhibition center in Japan connected directly to an international airport.

It is also one of the largest in the country. The release puts its total area at 60,000 square meters, divided into six exhibition halls and 18 conference rooms. Outside, a general-purpose site of about 33,000 square meters and a parking lot of 3,447 spaces complete the site.

Those figures describe an exhibition center, not a stadium, and the release gives no spectator capacity for the Games configuration.

Four sports under one roof

The hall will not be reserved for esports. The release lists four sports for Aichi Sky Expo: breaking, BMX freestyle, esports and fencing.

The release does not say which hall goes to which sport, or whether their dates overlap during the sixteen days of the Games.

For esports, the match schedule, the number of stages and the seating plan for each title have not been published.

The eleven titles the hall will host

The esports program was fixed more than a year before the venue. At an emergency meeting of its Executive Board held online on February 22, 2025, the Olympic Council of Asia unanimously approved eleven titles for Aichi-Nagoya, its Director General Husain Al Musallam announced in a circular dated the same day.

The fighting games are grouped into one team competition that awards a single medal. The council's list names three series inside it, Street Fighter, Tekken and King of Fighters, and states that the event carries only one medal, however many of those games are played. The circular announcing the list went to the council's member National Olympic Committees, its Executive Board members, the chairs of its standing committees and the organizing committee of the Games.

Two of the titles are played in versions prepared for the Games: PUBG Mobile and Identity V both carry the words Asian Games Version in the council's list. The practice is not new. In Hangzhou, the Associated Press listed Arena of Valor and Peace Elite in their own Asian Games Versions.

From demonstration event to medal sport

Aichi-Nagoya will be the second Asian Games to award medals in esports. The Olympic Council of Asia recalls that esports first appeared as a demonstration sport at the 18th Asian Games in Jakarta and Palembang in 2018, without counting in the medal table, then became a full medal sport with seven titles at the Hangzhou Asian Games, held in 2023.

Hangzhou built its esports competition around a dedicated hall. The Associated Press described a purpose-built esports arena of 4,500 seats, which was full for both matches played on the day of the League of Legends final. Demand was such that, according to the agency, esports was the only event for which the organizers had to introduce a lottery for tickets.

The seven titles in Hangzhou were five PC games and two mobile games, the Associated Press reported, with League of Legends among them. In that tournament, South Korea won the League of Legends gold medal on September 29, 2023, unbeaten throughout, in a best-of-three final, meaning the first side to win two games takes the match.

Aichi-Nagoya grows the program from seven titles to eleven and moves it from a dedicated arena to a multi-sport exhibition center.

The list has also changed in content. The Associated Press named the seven Hangzhou titles as League of Legends, Arena of Valor, Peace Elite, Dota 2, Dream Three Kingdoms 2, Street Fighter V: Champion Edition and EA Sports FC, also called FIFA Online 4. League of Legends returns unchanged, Honor of Kings and PUBG Mobile, which the agency identified with Arena of Valor and Peace Elite, return, and Street Fighter now sits inside the fighting-game team event. Dota 2, Dream Three Kingdoms 2 and FIFA Online 4 are not on the 2026 list, while Pokemon Unite, Mobile Legends: Bang Bang, Identity V, Naraka: Bladepoint, Gran Turismo 7, eFootball and Puyo Puyo Champions join it.

National teams already preparing

The federations of the region began building their squads before the venue was known. In South Korea, the Korean Sport and Olympic Committee and the Korea e-Sports Association (KeSPA) announced on February 12, 2026 that Kang Dong-hoon, known as Hirai, will be head coach of the national League of Legends team, Sheep Esports reported.

KeSPA recruited coaches for several titles, including PUBG Mobile and the fighting games Street Fighter, Tekken and The King of Fighters, with a head coach for each discipline. Candidates needed an A-level KeSPA coaching license, or to complete the certification course by 2025, and at least three years of experience in their title. For League of Legends, the head coach can choose from players who took part in the latest KeSPA Cup, held in the winter of 2025.

The first test for several of these squads comes this month. Disney+ announced on April 6, 2026 that it will stream Esports Championships Asia 2026, a three-day event held in Jinju, South Korea, from April 24 to 26. National teams from seven countries take part: South Korea, China, Japan, Vietnam, Thailand, the Philippines and Mongolia. The streamer presents the event as a platform for these teams to assess their level and sharpen their competitiveness before the 20th Asian Games.

The games on the Jinju program are close to the Asian Games list. Street Fighter 6, The King of Fighters XV and TEKKEN 8 belong to the fighting games that make up the Competitive Martial Arts team event, and eFootball, played on PC and mobile, is the football title of the Games.

The same announcement adds two further steps for the South Korean side, both part of a wider collaboration between Disney+ and KeSPA. A national team send-off ceremony and evaluation matches are scheduled later in the year, and Disney+ will stream them exclusively. League of Legends friendly matches will also be streamed before the Games. No dates have been given for any of them.

Those squads now know where they will play: in the halls next to Chubu Centrair, over the sixteen days of the Games.

What comes next

The Games run from Saturday, September 19 to Sunday, October 4, 2026. With the venue settled, the next published steps for esports are the competition schedule, title by title, and the arrangements for spectators, neither of which has been released.

Aichi Sky Expo will host its four sports within that window, with esports sharing the complex with breaking, BMX freestyle and fencing. The venue agreement leaves the details to the organizers, who have described it as a further step in their preparations.

The .esports registry publishes Esports Observer, so the whole scene can read its news for free.