X Games Celebrates 30 Years While Charting Bold New Future

Thirty years ago this month, Rhode Island played host to a new ESPN-owned action sports competition: the Extreme Games. The event would quickly be rebranded to X Games, and action sports would never be the same.

In that first Extreme Games, athletes competed in 27 events across nine sport categories: bungy jumping, eco-challenge, in-line skating, skateboarding, skysurfing, sport climbing, street luge, biking and water sports. The event attracted 198,000 spectators.

Two years later, the first Winter X Games were held in Big Bear, California, televised to 198 countries and territories in 21 different languages.

Last week, X Games celebrated its 30th anniversary in Salt Lake City, Utah, which hosted a Summer X Games event for the first time.

Marking three decades provides a natural opportunity to take a step back and examine where X Games has been and where it is now. Its owner has changed; in 2022, private equity firm MSP Sports Capital acquired a majority interest from ESPN Productions.

The competition program is far less varied; skateboarding is still a summer staple, joined by BMX freestyle and Moto X. Winter X Games has narrowed to skiing and snowboarding.

The format is about to undergo a major shake-up: in 2026, X Games League will launch. Eventually, the league will see teams of athletes compete in eight annual events—four summer and four winter—for individual medals and overall team points. More on that in a moment.

But one thing has remained the same and likely always will: the athletes who compete at X Games are the best in their sport, continuing to innovate and raise the bar higher for those who will come after them.

“ESPN and the X Games recognized a passion-filled youth culture and its potential entertainment value to the world, giving an entire generation of thrill seekers a way to turn our hobbies into careers,” Moto X legend Travis Pastrana told me.

In 1999, Tony Hawk launched skateboarding—and X Games—into the mainstream when he landed the first 900 at X Games San Francisco.

In 2006, Pastrana inked his name in the action sports record books when he landed the first double backflip at X Games Los Angeles.

Shaun White landed snowboarding’s first double cork McTwist 1260 at X Games Aspen 2010.

Two years later, Aspen was a hotbed for progression. Heath Frisby landed the first snowmobile front flip in competition. Snowboarders Mark McMorris and Torstein Horgmo landed the first-ever triple corks in competition.

These kinds of moments continue today. In 2021, at an X Games Vista devoid of spectators due to Covid-19, 12-year-old Gui Khury landed the first 1080 on a non-mega ramp…while competing against Hawk in Vert Best Trick.

In 2023, teenager Arisa Trew landed the first competition 720 in women’s skateboarding at X Games Ventura after landing it at Tony Hawk’s Vert Alert three weeks earlier.

At X Games Salt Lake City this past weekend, Ryan Williams landed the first triple backflip to dirt in BMX.

Among athletes, X Games has always been known as a contest that invites progression. Now, with X Games League, MSP Sports Capital and new CEO Jeremy Bloom are aiming to make X Games’ format as progressive as its athletic feats.

“As X Games turns 30, we’re staying true to what made it legendary—putting the world’s best action sports athletes on the biggest stage—while taking things to the next level with some big moves,” Bloom told me. “We’re launching X Games League in 2026 with team competition, athlete drafts and real salaries to give riders more support and fans more to follow.”

While X Games has historically held one U.S.-based summer and winter event each year, it has frequently supplemented them with international competitions in places like Norway, Japan and Australia.

The new X Games League will trace the globe; 35 cities around the world, from Shanghai to Berlin to St. Moritz, put forth bids to become host cities. The winning cities will be announced later this year.

“We’re using AI to generate custom commentary in multiple languages, so fans around the world can experience the sport in a way that feels native to them,” Bloom said.

Hosts will assume a portion of the cost to stage events, and in turn X Games will partner with these cities for anywhere from three to ten years and invest in each community by supporting skate parks, youth action sports programs and community initiatives.

In March, X Games named WNBA executive Annie Lokesh as Head of X Games League. Her responsibilities will include overseeing league operations and growth initiatives and shaping the business model and competitive structure.

At the conclusion of the Salt Lake City event last weekend, X Games announced its inaugural X Games League “Founder Athletes”: Ryan Sheckler, Nyjah Huston and Ryan Williams.

These athletes are defining figures in their sports (skateboarding for Sheckler and Huston and BMX for Williams). In their role, they will help league organizers design formats, shape the athlete experience and build a fan-first culture.

Huston and Williams are still actively racking up X Games medals. Sheckler, 35, burst onto the scene in 2003 when he won gold at 13 years old. He hadn’t competed at an X Games since 2017…but that changed last weekend in Salt Lake City. The veteran returned to competition in the skateboard street final alongside Huston.

“X Games has always pushed the level of progression, and it still does to this day,” Sheckler told me. “It has changed my life as a teenager and into my adult years. After competing this weekend in my 21st appearance, it relit a fire in me that I didn’t know still existed. I can’t wait to compete again.”

Over the next several months, X Games will announce more Founder Athletes—presumably including female ones—as well as team names, season schedules, athlete drafts, and media partners.

X Games League will feature a draft and a free agency period. It will have a fantasy league and it will offer sports betting. These are marked changes for action sports, which has always been decentralized and where many athletes navigate an uneasy balance between the structure of competing and the freedom of filming video parts.

The idea is that if X Games were set up more like a traditional league—such as F1, which is frequently cited by leadership as a model for the new league—it will attract a more mainstream fan base.

To that end, in the same way Drive to Survive produced a new generation of F1 fans, reality series following X Games athletes as they travel the world to compete are in the works.

One, from The Challenge producers Bunim/Murray Productions, has already been announced. X Games Battleground will bring together 30 current and past X Games athletes in an extreme competition series, crowning the top all-around female and male competitors.

The inaugural Summer X Games League (SXGL) will be headlined by skateboarding and BMX. Winter X Games League (WXGL) will launch in early 2027 with skiing and snowboarding.

More sports are expected to be added as the league takes shape. Mountain bike, in-line and snowmobile athletes have already expressed hope that their sports will make their X Games return. Though Moto X is not being highlighted as part of the 2026 launch, it is part of the plan for X Games League in the future.

The X Games of 2026 and beyond will hardly resemble that first competition in Rhode Island 30 years ago. But through all the event’s permutations, the one constant has been the athletes who never stop pushing to progress their sports.

As Williams described it, “X Games League is attempting to innovate just like we do with action sports.”

“It’s all about honoring where we’ve been while building what’s next,” Bloom said.