Sports in Indonesia are popular from both the participation and spectating aspect. Some popular sports in Indonesia are football, futsal, volleyball, basketball, badminton, and the native Indonesian martial art pencak silat as well as foreign martial arts such the Japanese Karate and Korean Taekwondo, other combat sports such as Kickboxing and Muay Thai have also gained significance in the country in recent years. Badminton is arguably Indonesia's most successful sport. Indonesia has won gold medals in badminton in every Olympic Games since the sport was first introduced to the Olympics in 1992, with the exception of two, at the 2012 and 2024 Summer Olympics, although in latter Games, Indonesia clinched a gold medal for the first time in sport climbing and weightlifting, respectively. Indonesia became the first grand winner in Badminton Olympics back then 1992. Indonesia regularly participates in the Thomas Cup, Uber Cup, and Sudirman Cup badminton championships, then became the first nation in history to complete those three titles. Indonesia also regularly participates in regional multi-events sport, such as the Southeast Asian Games, Asian Games, and Olympic Games. Indonesia is one of the major sport powerhouses in the Southeast Asian region, winning the Southeast Asian Games 10 times since 1977.
Sporting events in Indonesia are organised by the Indonesian National Sport Committee (Komite Olahraga Nasional Indonesia or KONI). The organisation, along with the Indonesian government, have set the National Sports Day on 9 September. Indonesia hosts the National Sports Week (Pekan Olahraga Nasional) multi-sport event every four years. Athletes from all provinces of Indonesia participate in this event, with hosting tally are distributed among Indonesian provinces.
History
Ancient era
In traditional Indonesian culture, there is no actual concept for physical exercise as the counterpart of modern sport. Native Indonesians usually linked the physical activities to tribal practices; mainly for ritual, art, physical fitness and martial purposes. The war dances and ritual combat among Indonesian tribes are the earliest example of ritualised physical exercise in Indonesia. Some of native Indonesian rituals are resembling sport, such as lompat batu (leaping the stone) tradition among Nias male youth as part of coming of age ritual, that resembles hurdling and long jump in athletics. Also Madurese karapan sapi and Minang pacu jawi (bull racing) that are similar to chariot race. Dragon boat, canoe and kayak race are virtually everyday activities among Indonesians that lives on the bank of major rivers or on distant islands.
In the 9th century the images of archery, described as princely court activities among nobility in ancient Java, can be found on bas-reliefs of Javanese candis. Archery is suggested as one of Indonesia's classical sport, and one of its famous rendering came from Prambanan temple as part of Ramayana story and later rendered as one of the icon of the Jakarta's 1962 Asian Games, also as the symbol of Gelora Bung Karno Stadium.
Pencak silat is the example of Indonesian native martial art that turned into competitive combat sport. Several Indonesian dances demonstrated repetitive movements that similar to physical exercise. Indonesian traditional social dances such as poco-poco dance from North Sulawesi and sajojo from Papua are adopted as senam kesegaran jasmani (musical calisthenics) today popular across Indonesia.
Modern era The modern concept of sport was introduced during the colonial Dutch East Indies period. During these times football and badminton had reached Indonesia and became popular sports among Indonesian people ever since. After Indonesian independence, the National Sports Committee of Indonesia was established in 1946 to unite the various satellite sports associations that were created within the regencies. Sports facilities such as Ikada Stadium (1951—1962) were constructed throughout the country. During Sukarno's reign, there was a desire to use sport as the means of uniting the Indonesian people, establishing national pride as well as promoting sports in Indonesia. As a result, the Gelora Bung Karno Stadium and its surrounding sporting complex facilities were constructed in 1962 to host the fourth Asian Games held in Jakarta. Today on the international stage, Indonesia is successful in badminton and has also been one of the major multi-event sports powerhouse of Southeast Asia.
Sports known in Indonesia Many sports were imported, some were developed from native Indonesian traditional sports and became popular in Indonesia.
Badminton
Badminton is Indonesia's most successful sport, described by The New York Times as "part of the national identity". Indonesia has won gold medal in badminton in every Olympic Games since the sport was first introduced to the Olympics in 1992, except for two, in 2012 and 2024. In 1992, it came from Alan Budikusuma in men's singles, and Susi Susanti in women's singles. In 1996, Ricky Subagja and Rexy Mainaky got the gold medal in men's doubles. In 2000, Candra Wijaya and Tony Gunawan won the gold medal in men's doubles. In 2004, Taufik Hidayat won a gold medal in men's singles. In 2008, Indonesia won a gold medal through men's doubles, Markis Kido and Hendra Setiawan. In 2016, Indonesia won a gold medal through mixed doubles, Liliyana Natsir and Tontowi Ahmad. In 2020, Indonesia won a gold medal through women’s doubles, Greysia Polii and Apriyani Rahayu.
Indonesian badminton athletes have played in various international badminton tournaments in Indonesia, China, Korea, Denmark, Malaysia, India, Japan, England and many other tournaments, including Summer Olympics ever since the sport was introduced as a demonstration sport in the 1972 Summer Olympics and its official introduction in the 1992 Summer Olympics. Rudy Hartono is an Indonesian legendary badminton player, who has succeeded to win All England titles seven times in a row.
Out of all participating nations, Indonesia won the most titles in the Thomas Cup (World Men’s Team Badminton Championships), winning 14 titles in 29 appearances. In addition to that, Indonesia has won the Uber Cup (World Women’s Team Badminton Championships) 3 times and Sudirman Cup (World Mixed Team Badminton Championships) once. Indonesia also held its own international badminton tournament, the most prestigious is Indonesia Open that has been held annually since 1982 and Indonesia Masters which has been held since 2010.
Football
Football has become one of the most popular sports in Indonesia since the country's independence, even though it had virtually no presence in the country before then. in Indonesia, this phenomenon is most often ascribed to general worldwide popularity of the sport, which carried over into Indonesia following its rapid urbanization. It is played widely, both professionally and as recreation. Liga Indonesia, the Indonesian domestic league is widely popular. Some of the major teams include: Persib Bandung, Persebaya Surabaya, PSM Makassar, PSMS Medan, Persija Jakarta, PSIS Semarang, Sriwijaya F.C., Persipura Jayapura, Bali United and Arema Malang. The national body is the Football Association of Indonesia (PSSI).
The Indonesian football league started around 1930 in the Dutch colonial era. In 1993, PSSI combined the existing Perserikatan, an amateur competition, and Galatama, a semi-professional league, to be a single professional competition for Indonesian football clubs, known as the Indonesian Football League (Liga Indonesia). Starting from 2008–09 season onwards, the competition format changed into a more common system that is also being used in most European football leagues by adding a fully professional league by banning local government's funding, the Indonesia Super League, now Liga 1.
On the international stage, Indonesia experienced limited success despite being the first Asian team to play for the FIFA World Cup in 1938 as Dutch East Indies, when they replaced the withdrawn Japan. In 1956, the football team played in the Olympics and played a hard-fought draw against Soviet Union. The youth teams played in the 1979 FIFA World Youth Championship (U-20, replacing three losing teams from the 1978 AFC Youth Championship) and 2023 FIFA U-17 World Cup (U-17, qualified as hosts), eliminated in the group stage on both occasions. The 2023 U-17 World Cup was the first FIFA tournament to ever take place in the country. The U-17 team then qualified for the 2025 World Cup, the country's first successful qualification campaign to a FIFA tournament.
On the continental level, Indonesia won the football bronze medal in the 1958 Asian Games. Indonesia's first appearance in Asian Cup was back in 1996. The Indonesian national team has since qualified for the Asian Cup five times; in 2000, 2004, 2007, 2023, and 2027, advancing to the knockout stage for the first time in 2023.
Volleyball Volleyball in Indonesia has been played since the Dutch colonial era. After being played as an official sport at the 1951 National Sports Week, the Indonesian Volleyball Federation was formed in 1955 and became the parent sport of volleyball in Indonesia. Until now, volleyball has become one of the popular sports played by the Indonesian people, both as study material at school, to fill their free time, and as a means of competition and also Volleyball becoming second most popular sports among Indonesian youth. The volleyball competition in Indonesia has been running, at least since the 1980s, as a professional competition for domestic volleyball athletes. Indonesia men's national volleyball team has also made several achievements in international competitions.
Basketball Basketball is one of the most popular sports especially among Indonesian youth. The Indonesia Basketball League (IBL) or Liga Bola Basket Indonesia is the pre-eminent men's basketball league in Indonesia, competed by 160 clubs across the country. The competition started as Indonesian Basketball League (IBL) in 2003. In 2010, Perbasi appointed DBL Indonesia to handle the competition and changed the league's name to National Basketball League (NBL). The name changed back to IBL after Starting5 took over as the new league operator in 2015.
The Indonesia men's national basketball team's biggest success has been gold at the 1996 Southeast Asian Basketball Championship and the 2021 SEA Games.
Indonesia hosted the official 2022 Asian Basketball Championship and the country co-hosted the 2023 Basketball World Cup, together with the Philippines and Japan. Several matches were played in Jakarta at the newly build Indonesia Arena inside the GBK sports complex.
Additionally, a whole basketball league is dedicated to junior and senior students throughout Indonesia. This league is called DBL, which stands for Development Basketball League.
Futsal Futsal is popular in Indonesia, with arenas in every city. Although futsal is relatively young in the country, it has become more popular due to the Indonesia Futsal Federation (Federasi Futsal Indonesia, FFI) which oversees the Indonesia national futsal team, and the local professional futsal league for both men and women. While the FFI is effectively a member of PSSI, they have relative autonomy in terms of futsal governance in Indonesia.
E-sports