While the NFL has been incredibly popular in the United States for many years, the league has recently prioritized globalization to expand the sport’s popularity abroad.
Enter the NFL International Series.
In Week 10 of the 2024 season, the NFL will play its fourth-ever regular-season game in Germany. Let’s examine why the league chooses to host games in the country.
Why Is the NFL Playing Games in Germany?
Again, the NFL International Series is all about expanding the sport’s popularity abroad. However, football is already quite popular in Germany.
According to a survey in 2021, American football was Germany’s second-most popular sport, with one in three people having contact with a game in the past year. The NFL estimates that there are 19 million fans in Germany, including 3.6 million who consider themselves avid fans — 25% more than in the United Kingdom.
This reflects the popularity of NFL Europa in Germany, where fans consistently bought tickets to games in the 1990s and early 2000s (unlike in other European countries).
Five clubs were created around Germany between 1995 and 2007, and they routinely pulled in close to 30,000 spectators. Also, around 500,000 German residents currently watch the country’s Sunday NFL doubleheader on the free-to-watch station ProSieben.
While many fans in America assume that London is the hub of international NFL fandom, it has actually been Germany.
When the NFL held its first-ever regular-season game in Germany back in 2022, there were three million ticket requests for the 75,000-seat Allianz Arena.
The Origin of the NFL’s International Games
While the NFL International Series as we know it was created in 2007, the league started playing games overseas many years earlier, including multiple games in London back in the 1980s.
Between 1950 and 1983, 13 games involving NFL or AFL teams were played outside of the United States; seven of those games were against CFL teams in Canada. Three other games were also played in Canada — one in Toronto and two in Montreal — but they were against fellow NFL teams rather than outside opponents. The final three games were played in Tokyo in 1976, Mexico City in 1978, and London in 1983.
In 1986, the NFL launched the American Bowl, an annual preseason game that was held outside of the United States. The first-ever American Bowl was played in London on Aug. 3, 1986. Over the years, games were played in Japan, Canada, Germany, Spain, Mexico, Ireland, and Australia.
However, after the 2005 exhibition game between the Atlanta Falcons and Indianapolis Colts in Tokyo, the NFL decided to abandon the American Bowl.
At the same time, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell announced the end of NFL Europa, the league formerly known as the World League of American Football and NFL Europe. The final season of NFL Europa took place in 2007 — the same year the NFL started the International Series, which featured annual regular-season games in London. Previously, Frankfurt, Germany, had an NFL Europa team (the Galaxy).
In recent years, the NFL expanded its NFL International Series to five overseas games, including three in London, during the 2024 season. Someday, we might even see an international Super Bowl, which is something Goodell has discussed.