As the athletes marched around the stadium for the opening ceremony of the Tokyo Olympics, they were accompanied by an unexpected soundtrack: a rousing suite of video game music from the likes of Final Fantasy and Sonic the Hedgehog.

It was a reminder that Japan takes gaming seriously, and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) is now following suit. This year’s games were preceded by the Olympic Virtual Series, where players competed in five sport simulation games. While these were not medalled competitions, they demonstrated gaming inching closer to the world’s biggest sporting event. Might we one day see video games in the Olympics proper, with competitive Fortnite slotted between judo and javelin?

Formalised larger-scale video game competitions, or esports, have existed since the 1980s and have been chasing legitimacy ever since. South Korea and China recognised them as an official sport in the early 2000s; in 2013 the US government began offering sporting visas to esports professionals; and in 2016 a Norwegian school started including esports instruction as part of the curriculum.