The NFL on Wednesday announced it will begin hosting up to eight regular season games internationally beginning in 2025, doubling the league's previous inventory of games held outside the United States.
Previously, the league staged four games abroad – in 2023, those were held at Tottenham Stadium in London and Frankfurt Stadium in Germany. The Jacksonville Jaguars have a separate deal to host one game per season at Wembley Stadium in London, which is not hosted by the NFL but means nine regular season games will be played outside the United States beginning in 2025.
The Colts have participated in two international contests, both of which were previously-scheduled road games (2016 vs. Jacksonville at Wembley Stadium, 2023 vs. New England at Frankfurt Stadium). The NFL's first regular season games in Frankfurt were a major success earlier this year.
The Colts have never played a home regular season game internationally, though they played preseason games in Mexico City, Tokyo and Toronto between 2000-2010.
As part of the NFL's international expansion, no team would be required to play more than one game internationally per season unless they requested to do so; the Jaguars in 2023 became the first team to play consecutive games internationally when they hosted the Atlanta Falcons at Wembley Stadium, then played a road game against the Buffalo Bills at Tottenham a week later.
No games will be played internationally after Week 14 of a season, and teams selected to host home games internationally will be allowed to designate two scheduled home games that cannot be played internationally. Traditionally, AFC teams have hosted international games in odd-numbered years (when nine of 17 regular season games are at home), while NFC teams have hosted international games in even-numbered years.
Additionally on Wednesday, the NFL announced a 2024 regular season game will be held in São Paulo, Brazil, marking the league's first game staged in South America. When that game is played, the NFL will have hosted preseason or regular season games on five of the planet's seven continents (North America, South America, Europe, Asia, Australia).
Since the NFL began playing regular season games internationally in 2005, with the San Francisco 49ers facing the Arizona Cardinals at Azteca Stadium in Mexico City, five cities have hosted at least one regular season game: London (36), Toronto (6), Mexico City (5), Frankfurt (2) and Munich (1). In addition to São Paulo, London will host two games at Tottenham and one game at Wembley in 2024, while Munich will host a game at Allianz Arena for the second time.
Future international markets will be announced at a later date.
