The NFL just had a record-breaking season. Next year will be bigger
Seattle Seahawks Sam Darnold (14) under center against the New England Patriots on February 8, 2026 at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California.
Jamie Schwaberow | Sports Illustrated | Getty Images
The Super Bowl ended last week, but plans are already in place for the 2026 NFL season.
Ahead of the game on Feb. 8, the NFL announced that Paris, Melbourne and Rio de Janeiro will host regular season games for the first time next season as part of a record nine overseas games (two more than in 2025).
“Over the last three or four years, as we started to increase the number of games that we had the opportunity to play outside the U.S., we really zeroed in on the last three years, and 2025 was the year we marked,” said Peter O’Reilly, the NFL’s executive vice president of international and league events.
NFL International Series
The NFL’s International Series began in its current form in 2007 with the first London game at Wembley Stadium. Only one match per season was played in London for the next five years, and many owners were skeptical about sacrificing revenue from home matches in a market dominated by the Premier League.
Now, almost 20 years later, there is talk that the league will extend the season to allow for more overseas matches.
“The possibility of an 18-game schedule requires more work – it requires alignment and negotiation with the players’ union – but the opportunity to introduce more regular season football and therefore the opportunity to play beyond the current number of international matches is certainly something we are considering,” O’Reilly said. he said.
Each of the NFL’s 32 teams played one regular season game outside the United States and is enrolled in the league’s Global Markets Program.
Launched in January 2022, the program grants clubs international marketing rights to help them build brand awareness and explore partnerships and commercial opportunities.
Teams with geographical, cultural or historical ties to a country are often granted rights in those regions. For example, the Arizona Cardinals have rights in neighboring Mexico; Supported by a large Hispanic and Latino community, the Miami Dolphins have rights in Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Mexico and Spain; And The Pittsburgh Steelers, whose owners have ancestral ties to Ireland, were granted the rights there in 2023.
Ireland, Steelers and Rooney connection
The Rooney family, which owns a majority stake in the Steelers, traces its roots to Ireland, where their ancestors emigrated in the 1840s and eventually settled in Pittsburgh. Art Rooney founded the team in 1933 and these ties have remained strong through charity work, cultural connections and politics; They include Art’s son, Dan Rooney, who served as the US ambassador to Ireland in 2009.
“The Rooneys and the Pittsburgh Steelers are literally coming home and that’s a lovely thing,” said Patrick O’Donovan, Ireland’s minister of culture, tourism and sport.
“One of the first things I did after becoming minister for culture, communications and sport was to acknowledge the government’s involvement in bringing the NFL to Dublin for the first time. So it’s a collaboration between the NFL and the Pittsburgh Steelers, the Gaelic Athletic Association and the Irish government.” he said.
Xavier Worthy, receiver #1 for the Kansas City Chiefs Alex Highsmith, player #56 for the Pittsburgh Steelers, during the third quarter at Acrisure Stadium in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on December 25, 2024.
Joe Sargent | Getty Images Sports | Getty Images
The Irish government sees the country’s connection with the Rooney family and the Steelers as an opportunity worth seizing. As part of the agreement to host the game, officials committed 10 million euros ($11.9 million) in public funding, half of which is for licensing fees paid to the NFL and the other half for transportation, security and venue arrangements.
But the event generated an estimated €64 million in additional economic activity, according to Fáilte Ireland, the country’s tourism development authority.
A major TV victory
The Dublin match was also a huge success in terms of television viewership. It was the second most-watched NFL Network international game on record, drawing 7.9 million viewers in the US; This represented a 68% increase from the 2024 international game average.
“The financials of the game are actually less important. Obviously, these games are profitable, but we view them as a pebble; you drop a pebble, it spreads far beyond the game,” O’Reilly said.
As the NFL’s international ambitions increase, so do the ambitions of other major sports leagues. The NBA played a large number of regular season games outside the United States in 2025, with few competitive football games played outside of local markets. If financial returns remain strong, more will likely follow.
