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Beijing's robot games quadrupled the machines on the floor — and 25 of the 666 teams come from outside China

The second World Humanoid Robot Games open in Beijing on 22 August and run to the 26th, at the National Speed Skating Oval. The organisers put the field at 2,056 robots entered by 666 teams from 16 countries on six continents. Against the first edition — 280 teams and just over 500 machines in August 2025 — that is 138% more teams and about four times as many robots. The same briefing contains a second set of numbers that is quoted far less often. Of the 666 teams, 641 are domestic: 157 Chinese companies plus 200 universities and research institutes. They bring 1,975 of the 2,056 robots. Subtract those and the entire foreign presence at the world championship comes to 25 teams and 81 machines — 3.8% of the field and 3.9% of the robots. Spread across the fifteen countries other than the host, that is under two teams each. The count of countries is the figure that did not move. The 2025 edition also drew 16. Everything that grew this year grew inside China: the number of entrants more than doubled, the number of nations stayed exactly where it was. The growth is also lopsided in a way worth naming. In 2025 the average team brought 1.8 robots; this year it brings 3.1. Teams are not merely more numerous, they arrive with deeper benches — which is what a manufacturing base looks like when spare units stop being precious. One caution on the headline growth rate. The deputy executive director, Jiang Guangzhi, said the robot count had doubled. Set against the officially reported 500-plus machines of 2025, 2,056 is a fourfold rise, and China Daily itself put the increase at 311% in a follow-up piece five days later. We use the underlying counts rather than either summary. The programme has widened too: alongside track and field, football, gymnastics, street dance and tai chi, this edition adds long jump, weightlifting, tug-of-war and table tennis, plus scenario events in industrial assembly, logistics, retail, hotel and family service, and firefighting and rescue. The 2025 edition ran 26 events. Note that these Games are a separate event from the World Robot Conference trade show, which ran in the same city earlier this month.