NFL Schedules a Record Nine International Games for 2026

The NFL scheduled nine regular-season games outside the United States in 2026, the most in league history, across four continents, seven countries and eight stadiums. The slate expands the league's international business, while a permanent overseas franchise remains a longer-term possibility rather than a confirmed plan.

Three cities are hosting NFL games for the very first time this season. The international slate kicks off in Melbourne, Australia, on September 10, when the San Francisco 49ers face the Los Angeles Rams at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, before the rotation extends to Rio de Janeiro and, for the first time ever, Paris, where the Pittsburgh Steelers and New Orleans Saints will play at the Stade de France on October 25. Established international markets aren't going anywhere either: London hosts three games this season, its 16th year in the rotation, while Madrid, Munich, and Mexico City round out the schedule.

How the international series developed

This year's expansion builds on a project that traces back to October 2005, when the Arizona Cardinals and San Francisco 49ers played the league's first regular-season game outside the United States at Estadio Azteca in Mexico City, a matchup that drew 103,467 fans and remains the largest crowd ever to watch an NFL regular-season game. That single game helped pave the way for the NFL International Series, which officially launched in 2007 and has since sent 62 regular-season games overseas, to markets including London, Berlin, Munich, Frankfurt, Madrid, Dublin, São Paulo, Mexico City, and Toronto.

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell has framed the addition of Paris specifically as a genuinely significant next step in the league's global footprint, rather than simply another market checked off a list. Peter O'Reilly, the league's executive vice president overseeing international business, described this year's schedule as reflecting the NFL's global growth vision, bringing fans in new markets meaningfully closer to the sport rather than treating international games as one-off novelty events.

The NFL's international business strategy

The single-game headlines are really just the visible surface of a much bigger commercial operation. The league's Global Markets Program, launched in 2022, grants individual NFL clubs marketing and fan-engagement rights in specific international territories, functioning as a longer-term investment in building fandom rather than a one-time event. All 32 teams now participate, with rights spread across 22 international markets, and the program added Italy as a new territory this year, with the Cleveland Browns and New Orleans Saints picking up marketing rights there while the Las Vegas Raiders expanded their own rights to cover Canada, the United Arab Emirates, and the United Kingdom.

That kind of structured, year-round international footprint, spanning broadcast deals, sponsorship, ticketing, and grassroots youth football development, marks a real shift from treating overseas games as neutral-site curiosities toward integrating them into the league's core commercial strategy on a permanent basis.

The case for an international franchise

The bigger question hovering over all of this is whether the NFL eventually plants a full-time franchise overseas, and for the first time, league officials are talking about it as a real possibility rather than a hypothetical. Goodell has confirmed the league's intent to explore international expansion at the franchise level, and reporting suggests the league is weighing structures like an international division, potentially with four teams playing consecutive road games abroad to help manage the travel burden that's historically made an overseas franchise logistically difficult.

London has emerged as the clear frontrunner for that eventual team, given its two decades of hosting NFL games, an established and passionate local fanbase, and the practical advantage of no language barrier alongside direct flight access from major US cities. Germany, particularly Munich or Berlin, is considered the next-strongest contender, backed by a passionate following and a growing slate of annual games in the country. Whether any of this materializes into an actual franchise remains genuinely uncertain, but the league's tone around the question has shifted noticeably from deflection to active planning.