The Games of the Future tournament, which has been taking place in the Russian city of Kazan during the past two weeks, has managed to gain traction around the world, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Chernyshenko told RT on Saturday, a day before the closing ceremony. He called the games a big success, evidenced both by the number of participants and the size of the audience that followed the competitions.
Now, nations around the world want to follow Russia’s example and host such games as well, Chernyshenko said. “We see already that nine countries want to host such competitions,” the official told journalists, adding that one of the cities seeking to hold the next event is Brazil’s Sao Paulo. He did not reveal what other nations are planning to compete for the right to become a Games of the Future venue.
Invented in Russia, the ‘phygital’ (physical + digital) format at the core of the Games of the Future combines traditional sports and cybersports in a unique mix. A total of 21 combined disciplines were part of the Kazan tournament. Those included phygital football, hockey, and basketball, as well as more traditional cybersports and high-tech contests such as drone racing, competitive programming, and robot battles.
According to Chernyshenko, phygital skateboarding turned out to be one of the “most interesting and popular” disciplines for the younger audience. As part of this competition, one team could set a challenge for the other in a virtual skateboarding game and their competitors had to repeat it in real life, the official said.
The deputy prime minister also said that he received massive positive feedback from the foreign teams that took part in the games. He specifically mentioned that Brazilians appeared to have shared the “very ideology of combining cyber and physical development to create a harmoniously developed person.”
Chernyshenko also praised the Chinese teams, saying that the delegation from China was not just one of the most representative ones but also one of the most successful at the games since they’ve scored one of the highest number of victories across all disciplines.
This first-ever iteration of the event involved more than 270 teams from 107 countries.
The event was watched “by a global audience,” the deputy minister said, adding that the games were shown on “240 platforms around the world,” including broadcasting, social media and other digital formats.
Earlier, one of the games’ organizers, Igor Stolyarov, compared the event’s viewership to that of Wimbledon, adding that both the Games of the Future and the renowned tennis tournament, which was last held in 2023, had gained a billion views.