As the esports competition at the 2026 Asian Games in Nagoya, Japan, came to a close Friday, China finished atop the medal table with three golds and one silver after entering four of the 11 events. Its final gold came in Identity V, where victory over host Japan made 20-year-old Mu Xinyue the first woman to win an Asian Games esports title.

China won gold in Naraka: Bladepoint and Honor of Kings, took silver in Game for Peace, the Chinese version of PUBG Mobile, and closed its campaign with the Identity V gold. All four games were developed by Chinese companies.

Mu was one of only 14 women among more than 500 esports athletes registered for the Games, where competitions are not divided by gender. She was the only woman on China’s 23-member esports squad.

Mu competes under the name Tao Wan’an as a survivor in Identity V, an asymmetrical multiplayer game developed by Chinese tech giant NetEase that made its Asian Games debut this year. In each round, teams play two halves, taking turns as four survivors trying to escape and one hunter trying to catch them. Points are awarded based on how many survivors escape or are caught.

China and Japan were level after the first two rounds. China pulled ahead in the third and, after another draw in the fourth, secured the title during the first half of the fifth round.

Mu joined professional esports club Beijing Weibo Gaming at 18 and is now the only woman with a starting role in Identity V’s professional league.

According to domestic media reports, she decided to pursue professional gaming at 16 but could not win her family’s support. She moved out of her family home in the eastern province of Shandong and supported herself while practicing with Mechanic, her signature character, eventually becoming the server’s top-ranked player in that role.

“I had never even dared to imagine this scene,” Mu wrote on the Chinese microblogging platform Weibo on Oct. 1, after winning gold.

South Korea won the final esports gold Friday by defeating Chinese Taipei in League of Legends. Japan and South Korea each finished with two golds, with Japan taking second place in the esports medal table because it won more silvers.

Esports first appeared at the Asian Games as a demonstration sport in Jakarta in 2018, then became a medal sport in Hangzhou in 2023. China won four golds and one bronze at those Games, which featured seven esports events.

China had collected 155 golds, 71 silvers, and 64 bronzes across the Games by the end of Oct. 1, with three days of competition remaining. It led both the gold-medal and overall medal counts and was on course to top the standings for the 12th consecutive edition, extending a run that began in 1982.

Editor: Apurva.

(Header image: Mu Xinyue at the 2026 Asian Games in Nagoya, Japan, Sept. 30, 2026. From Weibo)