Archery is a Southeast Asian Games event and has been one of the sports held at the Games since the 1977 edition in Kuala Lumpur.
The competition was based on the Single FITA round.
From 1989, the gold medals awarded were reduced to 4, with one each for men's individual, men's team, women's individual and women's team event.
From 2005, the compound archery event was introduced, increasing the number of medals to 8.
The current format of individual elimination rounds only allows the top two archers from each nation to enter.