Disney+ is deepening its push into live esports. The streaming company said on Thursday that it has expanded its existing partnership with the Korea Esports Association (KeSPA) to live stream a wider list of major esports competitions in Korea and Asia to its global subscribers.
The expanded deal kicks off April 24-26 with the Asia Jinju 2026 Esports Championship, a three-day tournament in Jinju, South Korea, that pits national teams from South Korea, China, Japan, Vietnam, Thailand, the Philippines and Mongolia against each other across a roster of fighting and simulation titles, including Street Fighter 6, The King of Fighters XV, Tekken 8Konami Electronic football series, PUBG Mobile and Eternal return. Disney+ will broadcast the competition live around the world, with ESPN’s on-screen branding showcased across the stream.
The Jinju event is a high-stakes build-up to the 20th Asian Games Aichi-Nagoya 2026, scheduled to be held from September 19 to October 4 in Japan, where esports will emerge as a full medal sport for only the second time in Asian Games history. The Aichi-Nagoya program has expanded to include 11 medal events across 13 titles – up from seven at Hangzhou 2022. National teams in the region have begun to treat these friendly regional tournaments with the seriousness once reserved for traditional Olympic sports.
Disney+ will also exclusively live stream the Korean national team’s official farewell ceremony and pre-game evaluation matches, as well as the 2026 LoL KeSPA Cup later this year.
Korea remains the center of gravity for global esports. The country’s LCK Champions League is widely viewed as one of the best professional leagues in the world, and the government-backed KeSPA is among the most established esports leagues anywhere.
Disney+ is also currently streaming round-by-round replays of the 2025 LoL KeSPA Cup, which featured 10 teams from the South Korean league taking on star teams from Vietnam and Japan, along with two teams from the North American League Championship Series.
The expanded KeSPA is part of a broader strategic push by Disney+ to secure select live sports rights across the Asia-Pacific region, following the launch of ESPN on Disney+ in Australia and New Zealand in 2025. Late last year, the company struck a multi-year deal with the NBA to provide basketball coverage to Disney+ subscribers in the Philippines for the first time. The company has also beefed up its Korean written menu recently.
Netflix has been aggressively pursuing a similar strategy for sports and live events to grow its footprint in Asia’s still-mature streaming markets — most recently with its exclusive broadcast in Japan of the 2026 Baseball Classic, which concluded last month and broke the company’s domestic viewing records.
