Facts and figures about the NFL’s international games and growth

By Canadian Press on May 16, 2025.

LONDON (AP) — The NFL’s international road trip will add Berlin, Dublin and Madrid as new destinations in the 2025 season, in which a record-high seven games will be staged outside the United States.

It’s a far cry from when league officials had to persuade teams to play abroad when it was just one international game per year a couple of decades ago. The Minnesota Vikings this season will play back-to-back games abroad in different cities — first in Dublin and the next week in London. Sao Paulo, Brazil, is hosting for a second straight season.

The league’s appetite for international expansion is only growing, with Melbourne, Australia already locked in for next year. Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates, could be a future host at some point, too. There have been 55 regular-season games played abroad so far.

NFL commissioner Roger Goodell has even floated the idea of some day staging an international Super Bowl.

Here are a few facts and figures to help put it into context:

1

Number of times the Dallas Cowboys have played internationally. “America’s team” seems to take its nickname literally. Tony Romo led Dallas to a 31-17 win over the Jacksonville Jaguars on Nov. 9, 2014 at Wembley Stadium. Two other teams — the Pittsburgh Steelers and Cleveland Browns — have also played just once abroad, but both are on the international schedule this season. The Steelers play the Vikings on Sept. 28 in Dublin; the Browns face the Vikings on Oct. 5 at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. The Jacksonville Jaguars have played the most international games — 13, all in London.

3

All but three teams participate in the NFL’s “ global markets program ” with rights in designated countries to sign commercial deals and grow their fan bases — in the same way they do in their home markets. The only teams that don’t participate are the Buffalo Bills, Cincinnati Bengals and Tennessee Titans.

4

Number of times a team won a Super Bowl in the same season they played an international game. It’s happened the past two seasons: the Philadelphia Eagles won their Week 1 game in Sao Paulo, Brazil last season; and the Kansas City Chiefs were victorious in Frankfurt, Germany in Week 9 of 2023. The Chiefs also also won in Mexico City (Week 11) in 2019 before winning the Super Bowl. The 2007 New York Giants is the other team, after playing in the first regular-season game in London.

17

Number of hours of time difference between Los Angeles and Melbourne, Australia. The Rams have been announced as one of the teams that will play a regular-season game at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in 2026. It’s likely to be a Week 1 game that kicks off before noon in Melbourne. The Los Angeles Dodgers and Arizona Diamondbacks opened the 2014 MLB season in Sydney a week ahead of the rest of the league.

26

Number of regular-season games that have been played at Wembley Stadium. The next highest is Tottenham Hotspur Stadium (10). The Rogers Centre in Toronto is next with six games. Azteca Stadium in Mexico City, currently under renovations, has staged five games. The rest: London’s Twickenham Stadium (3); Munich’s Allianz Arena (2); Frankfurt’s Deutsche Bank Park (2); and Corinthians Arena (1) in Sao Paulo.

59

Yards thrown by Giants quarterback Eli Manning in a 13-10 victory over the Miami Dolphins in the first regular-season game in London, played Oct. 28, 2007 at Wembley Stadium. The highlight of the mudfest was Manning scrambling for a 10-yard touchdown run in the second quarter.

.125

Buffalo’s winning percentage in international games. The Bills are 1-7 outside US. They played at the Rogers Centre in Toronto for six straight years (2008-13), winning just once. They pulled the plug on the experiment in December 2014 by terminating the four remaining years of the contract to play an annual game there. The 2013 game had an announced crowd of just 38,969. The Bills are 0-2 in London after losing both times (2015, 2023) to the Jaguars.

103,467

Highest attendance for a regular-season international game — the very first one played outside the U.S. It was at Azteca Stadium in Mexico City on Oct. 2, 2005. The Arizona Cardinals beat the San Francisco 49ers 31-14. It might one day be eclipsed by Barcelona’s Camp Nou, which is expected to have a capacity just over 104,000 after renovations are completed. The NFL has already expressed interest in playing a game there.

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AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl

Ken Maguire, The Associated Press

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