As the 2025 NFL season gets underway, the sport is spreading its wings more than ever, as a total of seven international regular-season NFL games will be played across five countries. As well as established international venues for NFL matches in the UK and Germany, matches will be played for the first time in Brazil, Ireland and Spain.
In this article, we’ll take a look at the seven games in question and ponder whether the move marks the beginning of an even greater international expansion for the sport. We’ll also take a look back at previous international NFL games, which have been taking place for longer than many people realise.
International NFL Matches in 2025
| Date | Match | Venue & City | Country |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5th September | Kansas City Chiefs v Los Angeles Chargers | Corinthians Arena, São Paulo | Brazil |
| 28th September | Minnesota Vikings v Pittsburgh Steelers | Croke Park, Dublin | Ireland |
| 5th October | Minnesota Vikings v Cleveland Browns | Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, London | UK |
| 12th October | Denver Broncos v New York Jets | Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, London | UK |
| 19th October | Los Angeles Rams v Jacksonville Jaguars | Wembley Stadium, London | UK |
| 9th November | Atlanta Falcons v Indianapolis Colts | Olympiastadion, Berlin | Germany |
| 16th November | Washington Commanders v Miami Dolphins | Santiago Bernabéu Stadium, Madrid | Spain |
The first NFL match of the 2025 campaign to be played overseas takes place in São Paulo in Brazil, in the stadium that houses the Corinthians football team. The match features the side that lost out in last season’s Super Bowl, the Kansas City Chiefs (who went down 40-22 to the Philadelphia Eagles when seeking an unprecedented “three-peat”). The Chiefs will face the Los Angeles Chargers, who finished fifth in the AFC and then went out to the Houston Texans in the Wild Card playoffs. It’s the first time the NFL will have played a regular-season game in Brazil, and it will be intriguing to see how the soccer-mad nation takes to the sport.
Next up, the NFL party shifts to the Emerald Isle for its debut on Irish shores. The Pittsburgh Steelers will feature, as they cultivate a professed Irish connection, based on their owners’ family ancestry (the Rooney family emigrated from Ireland to the US in the 1840s). They will face the Minnesota Vikings at Croke Park in Dublin on 28th September.
Hat-Trick of London Matches
The Vikings, who lost out to the LA Rams at the Wild Card stage of the playoffs back in January, will also feature in the first of three NFL games in London in October. They will play against the Cleveland Browns at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on 5th October. Given the Browns had one of the worst records in the whole NFL last term, the side from Cleveland could be up against it (although they had some fine draft picks that could move them in the right direction).
A week later, the Tottenham venue will host the Denver Broncos versus the New York Jets. The Jets finished 11th in the AFC last term and didn’t make it to the postseason, but the Broncos just snuck through in seventh, but then fell at the Wild Card playoff hurdle against the Buffalo Bills.
The final of the trio of London games takes place at Wembley Stadium on 19th October and sees the Los Angeles Rams take on the Jacksonville Jaguars. After finishing the regular season in fourth in the NFC, the Rams made it to the Divisional playoffs last term, but they got beaten by the eventual Super Bowl winner, the Philadelphia Eagles. The Jaguars, meanwhile, had a tough campaign and finished in 12th in the AFC with only four victories in the regular season.
European Tour
The final two international matches are designed to expand the reach of the NFL in Europe. The next game takes place on 9th November at the Olympiastadion in Berlin between the Atlanta Falcons and the Indianapolis Colts. Neither made the postseason last time around, but neither was too far away.
Finally, the last of the seven overseas games will be played at the home of Real Madrid, the Bernabéu Stadium in Spain’s capital city, on 16th November. The Washington Commanders will battle it out with the Miami Dolphins. The Commanders had a very good season last time, making it to the NFC Championship, but losing to the Eagles in a high-scoring game (55-23).
A Brief History of International NFL Matches
As mentioned, there have never been this many regular-season NFL games played internationally, but the roots of overseas American football games go back to the 1980s. Several pre-season exhibition matches were played in Canada, Mexico, Australia, Japan and the UK. Wembley hosted its first game, dubbed the American Bowl, in 1986 when the Super Bowl champions of the day, the Chicago Bears, took on the Dallas Cowboys.
It was almost 30 years later, in 2005, that the first NFL regular-season match took place on foreign soil as Mexico City played host to the Arizona Cardinals versus the San Francisco 49ers at the Estadio Azteca in front of more than 103,000 fans. Two years later, the NFL started playing annual matches at Wembley, which has a legitimate claim to be the NFL’s overseas spiritual home. From 2013, further games were added to the London schedule, and then in 2016 further regular-season matches were once again played in Mexico.
Things moved to the next level in 2019 as Tottenham Hotspur Stadium secured a 10-year deal to host at least two NFL games each year. Germany got involved too from 2022, and demand far outstripped supply for tickets for the Buccaneers versus Seahawks match in Munich, when apparently there were more than three million ticket requests!
In the following years, Germany added more games and the UK hosted three or more games in most seasons. And then, in 2025, the NFL has spread its wings yet further to include Spain, Ireland and Brazil. If the model continues to work (i.e. make the teams loads of extra money!), we wouldn’t be surprised to see other sports or leagues following suit… so perhaps it won’t be too long before we see a Premier League Merseyside derby being played in Saudi Arabia or Delhi. We’re not sure Liverpool or Everton regulars would be wholly on board with that, though!