Breaking, a style of street dancing, originated in the 1970s as part of hip-hop culture among African-American and Latino-American youth. At Guangzhou 2010 Asian Games, the Standard and Latin were among the official medal events. In 2020, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) nominated breaking as the official medal event at Paris Olympic Games 2024. Breaking was also set to make its official Asian Games debut at Asian Games Hangzhou 2022.

The dance floor for breaking must be a 5-cm-thick Masonite board of at least 6m * 6m (or a circle with a diameter of 6m) placed on a solid and flat ground. Breakers go up against each other in a 1 vs 1 battle and take alternate turns or throw downs to perform their routines. One battle is called one round. In principle, each throw down must be no longer than 60 seconds. The breaking in Asian Games Hangzhou 2022 consists of a men's event and a women's event. The event is divided into preliminary, round-robin and knockout stages based on the number of breakers. In the preliminary stage, each breaker performs a routine in a battle. The judges score the breakers based on their performance. In the round-robin stage, the breakers are grouped based on their preliminary rankings. Each group has four breakers. Each breaker battles against every other one in the same group. The top eight qualify for the next stage. In the knockout stage, the breaker ranking 1st in the round-robin stage battles with the one ranking 8th, the 2nd with the 7th, the 3rd with the 6th, and the 4th with the 5th. Four winners advance to the semi-final. Two winners of the semi-final enter the final. There are four battles in each session of the knockout stage, and each session is divided into the first half and the second half, with a 90-second break. Judges score the battles on six criteria: performativity, musicality, personality, creativity, variety, and technique. The breaker with more color blocks wins.