HANGZHOU — This year, the world of online gaming takes its place at the Asian Games as an official event for the first time, with gold medals in play across seven top titles.

The Asian Games has long featured other so-called "mind games," like bridge and chess, so it's not surprising that extremely popular — and lucrative — esports events are being added to the lineup.

Teams from more than 30 countries and regions are taking part, with South Korea and host China expected to dominate what is anticipated to be one of the most watched events of the two-week Asian Games.

The competition features five PC games and two mobile games, covering both multiplayer online battle arena, or MOBA, and single-player genres.

The lineup consists of: League of Legends, Arena of Valor Asian Games Version (also known as Honor of Kings); Peace Elite Asian Games Version (also known as PUBG Mobile); Dota 2; Dream Three Kingdoms 2; Street Fighter V: Champion Edition; and EA Sports FC (also known as FIFA Online 4).

Competition forms vary with the genre, but gold medals will be awarded for each game.

There's even more at stake for the South Korean players, like Lee "Faker" Sang-hyeok, known by many as the League of Legends GOAT — Greatest Of All Time. Winning a gold medal at the Asian Games earns South Korean men an exemption from otherwise compulsory military service.

Esports was first featured at the last Asian Games in Jakarta, Indonesia, as a demonstration sport and proved incredibly popular.

Newzoo, a research company that specializes in tracking the global gaming market, projected in its annual analysis released last month that the number of players worldwide will reach 3.38 billion in 2023, up 6.3 percent year-on-year, with mobile gaming contributing to most of the growth. It expects 3.79 billion players by the end of 2026.

Annual revenues are expected to grow 2.6 percent to $187.7 billion, with 46 percent from the Asia-Pacific region, followed by 27 percent from North America and 18 percent from Europe. The strongest growth, however, was seen in the Middle East and Africa.

There's more to the gaming crossover than esports showing up in the Asian Games competition. Newzoo notes the success of movies and shows derived from video games, like The Super Mario Bros. Movie and HBO series The Last of Us.

"Gaming is now fully embedded in the mainstream," the company said in its report. "With each younger generation, gaming engagement increases; as current players age and new players enter the fold, player numbers will continue to rise."

Despite being a competition event at the Asian Games now, however, the possibility of esports making it to the Olympics is still an open question.

The International Olympic Committee has looked longingly at the potential of gaming and virtual sports to help attract, and stay relevant with, young audiences. That goal saw skateboarding and surfing debut at the Tokyo Olympics held in 2021, and breaking will join them at the 2024 Paris Olympics.

However, some long-established aspects of gaming culture are not welcome in the Olympic family.

"We have to draw a very clear red line in this respect," IOC president Thomas Bach has said, "and that red line would be e-games where you have the promotion of violence or any kind of discrimination as content."

This month, the IOC created a formal esports commission, and its focus is on virtual sports, such as cycling on a stationary bike that replicates the demands, for example, of riding a mountain stage at the Tour de France.