The first World Humanoid Robot Games located in Beijing occurred from August 15 to 17, 2025. Additionally, more than 500 robots from 280 teams in 16 countries competed. The National Speed Skating Oval served as the venue for this unique combination of sport and more traditional challenge events such as soccer, sprints, a kung fu match, and more utilitarian events like sorting medicine and cleaning a hotel room . 

Despite some impressive participation, the games also showed some limitations of humanoid robots. In general robots struggled with even the most basic of tasks. For example, one of the robots took over 17 minutes to dispose of a piece of trash in a made-up hotel room and another robot, without a head, took almost five minutes to retrieve three different boxes of medicine in a simulated pharmacy . So the games demonstrated how far the world of robotic humanoids is from practical applications.

There was good news as well. The gold medalist in the cleaning event was UniX AI and their autonomous robot completed the cleaning event in 8 minutes and 21 seconds . In the sprint event, Unitree's H1 robot completed a 1,500 m race in 6 minutes and 34 seconds. This was another impressive show of progress on the mobility aspect of robotics.

The event included a variety of robots that danced, played musical instruments, and participated in martial arts, allowing the mix of entertainment and technology demonstration. Although many of the robots had awkward movement patterns and had some malfunctions, their autonomous recovery did showcase the advancements in design and control systems.

China's investment in humanoid robotics is evident, as the increasing age of the population and the need for automation have driven the country to invest heavily in the industry . The games were not only an excellent opportunity to showcase what the robots could do, but it was also a learning opportunity for developers to identify areas for improvement and allow for innovation.