The NFL is no longer treating international growth as a side project.
The league is preparing for what could become one of the biggest expansion efforts in its history, with NFL International chief Gerrit Meier saying the organization believes its next 50 million fans will come from outside the United States.
And the NFL is already putting that strategy into action.
The 2026 season features a record nine regular-season games outside the United States, spread across four continents, seven countries and eight stadiums. The international schedule begins in Melbourne, Australia, before moving through Brazil, the United Kingdom, France, Spain, Germany and Mexico.
THE NFL’S BIG GLOBAL BET
For decades, the NFL built an extraordinarily lucrative business primarily around its massive American audience.
Now, the league sees international markets as one of its biggest opportunities for future growth.
Meier told Reuters that the NFL believes the next 50 million fans it can attract will not come from the United States but from international markets. But the league recognizes that turning casual interest into long-term fandom will take years.
That distinction is important.
Watching an NFL game once does not necessarily make someone a committed fan. The league wants to move international audiences through a longer-term funnel—from curiosity and occasional viewing to regular engagement, subscriptions, merchandise purchases and ultimately a stronger commercial market.
2026: THE NFL’S BIGGEST INTERNATIONAL SEASON YET
The scale of the 2026 experiment is unprecedented.
The nine international games are scheduled for:
- Melbourne, Australia — San Francisco 49ers vs. Los Angeles Rams
- Rio de Janeiro, Brazil — Baltimore Ravens vs. Dallas Cowboys
- London, United Kingdom — three games
- Paris, France — Pittsburgh Steelers vs. New Orleans Saints
- Madrid, Spain — Cincinnati Bengals vs. Atlanta Falcons
- Munich, Germany — New England Patriots vs. Detroit Lions
- Mexico City, Mexico — Minnesota Vikings vs. San Francisco 49ers
The Melbourne game is particularly significant because it marks the NFL’s first regular-season game in Australia. Paris and Rio de Janeiro are also new markets for the league’s 2026 international schedule.
The season opens internationally on September 10, when the 49ers and Rams meet at Melbourne Cricket Ground.
AUSTRALIA COULD BECOME A PERMANENT NFL MARKET
Australia is emerging as one of the league’s most closely watched growth markets.
According to the NFL, an estimated 8.8 million Australians identify as NFL fans, a striking figure in a country where Australian rules football, rugby league and cricket dominate the sporting landscape.
The league is not simply looking to stage one successful event and leave.
NFL officials have indicated that they want Melbourne to eventually become an annual destination, similar to the NFL’s long-running commitment to London.
The league has a multiyear agreement with Victoria that guarantees two games over four years, with an option for a third. Australian officials also expect the event to generate substantial economic activity, including visitors traveling from the United States.
BRAZIL, EUROPE AND BEYOND
Brazil represents another major opportunity.
The Cowboys and Ravens are scheduled to play at Rio de Janeiro’s iconic Maracanã Stadium on September 27, marking the NFL’s first regular-season game in Rio.
The league is also deepening its presence in Europe, with three games in London and additional games in Paris, Madrid and Munich.
The NFL has already played dozens of regular-season games outside the United States. Heading into 2026, the league said 62 regular-season games had been played internationally.
But the strategy is changing from simply taking games abroad to establishing a continuing presence in individual markets.
That means returning to the same countries, building local fan communities and developing commercial opportunities around the sport throughout the year.
JAPAN IS ALSO ON THE NFL’S RADAR
Asia could become another major piece of the puzzle.
Reuters recently reported that the NFL is examining the possibility of expanding its presence in Japan, where American sports already have a significant following.
NFL Europe and Asia-Pacific chief Brett Gosper said Japan’s existing interest in American sports makes it an attractive potential market.
The league has also acknowledged a major challenge in Asia: geography and time zones make it considerably more complicated to stage regular-season games there compared with Europe.
Still, the ambition is significant.
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell has previously identified 16 international games as a long-term goal, while league owners have approved up to 10 international games per season beyond 2026, subject to the limits of the league’s collective bargaining agreement.
THE NFL IS BUILDING MORE THAN GAMES
The league’s international strategy does not stop at stadiums.
In 2022, the NFL launched its Global Markets Program, giving individual clubs international marketing and commercialization rights in specific territories.
By 2026, all 32 NFL teams participate in the program, with rights covering 22 international markets. Italy was added to the program in 2026.
The idea is to allow teams to build relationships with international supporters through local events, marketing, merchandise, commercial partnerships and youth football programs.
That could prove more important than the games themselves.
A successful international market is not simply one that fills a stadium for three hours.
It is one where people continue watching NFL games the following week, buy team merchandise, follow players on social media, play fantasy football, participate in youth programs and eventually pass the sport on to the next generation.
THE BIGGEST CHALLENGE: TURNING INTEREST INTO LOYALTY
The NFL already has enormous international visibility.
But the league admits it does not yet have a perfect way of measuring what it means to be an NFL fan in different countries.
Someone who watches the Super Bowl once is very different from someone who follows a team every week.
That makes the 50-million-fan ambition both enormous and difficult to measure.
The NFL’s challenge is therefore not simply to export American football.
It is to create local NFL cultures.
That means finding teams, players and stories that resonate with audiences in different countries rather than assuming the same marketing strategy will work everywhere.
THE GLOBAL EXPERIMENT IS JUST BEGINNING
The NFL’s international expansion is increasingly looking less like a series of promotional trips and more like a long-term business strategy.
The league is expanding its schedule, increasing its number of international markets, giving teams overseas commercial rights and investing in grassroots participation.
And the 2026 season may be its clearest test yet.
If Melbourne, Rio, Paris and the league’s established European markets can produce sustained interest—not merely sold-out stadiums—the NFL could have a blueprint for reaching millions of additional fans.
But if the excitement disappears once the teams fly home, the league will have a very different problem.
The NFL believes its next 50 million fans are waiting outside America.
The question now is whether it can turn that enormous global curiosity into lifelong fandom.
WWC ONE MEDIA MJE
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