Once a rare novelty, international games are now the norm in the NFL. And now, the 2025 season will feature a record seven regular-season games played overseas, including the first-ever contests in Madrid, Berlin, and Dublin.
The league’s international expansion is only growing, and there’s still the possibility we’ll one day see an overseas franchise, or even a full division. How did the NFL’s International Series grow to this point, and what does the future hold for football beyond U.S. borders?
History of NFL Regular-Season Games Internationally
The NFL’s first regular-season international game came in 2005, when the Arizona Cardinals faced the San Francisco 49ers in Mexico City. However, the annual international series as we know it began in 2007 with a matchup between the New York Giants and Miami Dolphins at Wembley Stadium in London.
What started as a once-a-year game at Wembley gradually expanded to include multiple London games between Wembley and Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. The league has since added contests in Mexico City, Munich, Frankfurt, and São Paulo.
As noted above, the 2025 season will mark the debut of three new international cities hosting regular-season games.
Additionally, while there was concern early on about the toll an overseas game might take in the middle of a season, there has historically been little “hangover” effect from international trips.
Teams are 50-45-1 with an almost even point differential (+0.1 per game) in the game following an international appearance. Apart from a 1-9 outlier in 2019, there hasn’t been a season with significantly negative post-travel results.
How the NFL International Series Has Evolved
Beyond just the growing number of games, the quality of international matchups has also improved.
From 2007 to 2021, there were no London games between teams that both entered with winning records. UK fans endured a staggering 31 consecutive games where at least one team entered at or below .500 — usually far below. Between 2007 and 2015, only 12 of the 40 teams (30%) that played internationally went on to make the playoffs.
That trend has shifted in recent years. Since 2016, 26 of 68 teams (38%) that appeared in an International Series game have reached the playoffs. That includes three straight seasons of games between eventual playoff teams, something that happened just once between 2007 and 2016.
Overall, the combined win percentage of teams in international games was above .500 just once in that timeframe. Since 2017, it has topped that mark three times, though last season saw it dip to .385, thanks to matchups like the Giants vs. Carolina Panthers and the Jacksonville Jaguars vs. New England Patriots.
One potential factor in the shift is television rights money. For example, the Brazil game was not part of the pre-negotiated TV rights deal with CBS, NBC, FOX, ESPN, and Amazon Prime.
As a result, that package became an open bidding war between outlets like Peacock and YouTube, with the NFL driving up the price by attaching a high-profile matchup to the window (Packers-Eagles in 2024, Chiefs-Chargers in 2025).
In 2024, Front Office Sports reported that the NFL was preparing a multi-billion-dollar rights package specifically for international games. Even with limited total inventory, the appeal lies in owning a new window of “island” games, since the time difference usually puts international games in unique time slots outside the standard Sunday slate.
If the NFL finalizes this deal, it would likely come with an unspoken agreement to boost game quality, much like the upgrades Thursday Night Football and Monday Night Football received in recent years. However it shakes out, it’s likely the NFL International Series will start featuring more contenders and big-market teams instead of lower-tier matchups.
What’s the Future of the NFL International Series?
In the short term, the NFL will continue hosting a regular slate of overseas games. In 2026, Melbourne, Australia, will host its first-ever NFL regular-season game, with the Los Angeles Rams serving as the designated home team. More games in Europe, Central America, and South America are also expected based on the precedent set in 2025.
Looking ahead, commissioner Roger Goodell has been open about the league’s long-term plans for an international footprint. Speaking at the 2025 NFL Draft, Goodell said he hopes the league will soon play 16 international games per year — effectively the full schedule for one team — including games on continents like Asia that haven’t yet hosted regular-season contests.
While hard data on international fan growth is limited, the league’s investment is clear. Through its Global Markets Program, 29 of 32 NFL teams have secured international marketing rights in at least one country as of 2025, despite the program only launching in 2022. The International Pathway Program has been running since 2017, with Philadelphia Eagles left tackle Jordan Mailata of Australia standing out as the biggest success story.
Could the NFL eventually place a franchise overseas? There’s been longstanding speculation about a potential team in London, with the Jaguars often floated due to their consistent UK presence and owner Shad Khan’s ties to the English Premier League.
But the logistics are a serious hurdle. A lone European team would deal with major time zone challenges and face competitive disadvantages.
Proposals for an entire European division have been floated, but adding four expansion teams at once would require massive structural changes not seen since the AFL-NFL merger in 1970. That merger involved 10 existing franchises, not brand-new ones.
For now, the NFL continues to steadily grow its international presence. What was once a uniquely American sport is now reaching more fans across the globe each year, and that trend shows no signs of slowing down.