Two decades of international games have produced a handful of fixtures that mattered well beyond the final score — games that either drew a crowd nobody expected or opened a country to the NFL for the first time. Here are the ones worth knowing before you watch this year's slate.
Cardinals @ 49ers — Mexico City, 2 October 2005
Before there was an "International Series" to speak of, there was this: a regular-season game at Estadio Azteca that drew more than 103,000 fans, still the largest crowd ever to watch a regular-season NFL game. It wasn't part of any ongoing plan at the time — it was a one-off experiment. It's also the reason everything on this site exists, because it's the game that convinced the league an international series was worth building.
Giants 13–10 Dolphins — Wembley Stadium, London, 28 October 2007
The first officially-branded International Series game, and the first NFL regular-season game ever played in Europe. A low-scoring, defensive slog in the rain in front of 81,000+ fans — not a classic on the scoreboard, but the game that launched an annual London fixture that's never stopped since. The Giants went on to win Super Bowl XLII that season.
Raiders 27–20 Texans — Estadio Azteca, Mexico City, 21 November 2016
Eleven years after that first record-breaking crowd, Mexico City got a permanent slot in the rotation, and the atmosphere lived up to the wait — a sold-out, deafening Azteca that reminded the league exactly why it had gone back. It kicked off the modern run of Mexico City games that continues in 2026.
Buccaneers 21–16 Seahawks — Allianz Arena, Munich, 13 November 2022
Germany's first-ever NFL game, and by most accounts one of the loudest international crowds the league had seen — German fandom had been building online and through NFL Europe's history for years before the league finally brought a game there. It opened the door to Frankfurt joining as a second German venue the following year, and set the template for just how much appetite there was still to tap in continental Europe.
Eagles 34–29 Packers — Neo Química Arena, São Paulo, 6 September 2024
The first NFL game ever played in South America — and it opened the entire 2024 season, the earliest an international game had ever been scheduled on the calendar. A back-and-forth shootout in front of a raucous Brazilian crowd, it proved international games didn't need to be scheduled as a mid-season novelty; they could headline opening week.
Every one of these games did more than fill a slot on the schedule — each one opened a door the league walked through again.
Which brings us to 2026: four brand-new host nations, a first-ever game in the Southern Hemisphere, and nine games in total. Read our preview of the Melbourne opener for a look at the game most likely to join this list.