The Washington Commanders won’t have to wait another nine years for their next international game. After traveling to Madrid this season as the visiting team in the NFL’s first game in Spain, Washington will be the designated home team in another international game in 2026, Commanders President Mark Clouse told The Athletic.
It will be the first time the franchise has played internationally in consecutive seasons and the third time overall it has played in the NFL’s International Series, which launched in 2007.
The Commanders fell to the Dolphins, 16-13, in overtime at Santiago Bernabéu Stadium last Sunday. It was Washington’s first trip overseas since 2016, when it tied the Cincinnati Bengals, 27-27, in overtime at London’s Wembley Stadium.
“The NFL has obviously demonstrated that there is a market for this,” Clouse told The Athletic. “… For the franchise, it allows us to tap into a new audience and to begin to expand on a much more global level. That means everything, from merchandise to social media to how we’re able to attract sponsors that may have a more global footprint. So, I see it both as a great fan opportunity, but I also see it as a really good business opportunity for the franchise as well.”
The NFL has made no secret of its intent to become a global league, and so far it’s found success in its targeted markets. The league held seven regular-season games in cities outside the United States this season, up from five in 2024.
The six games that aired on NFL Network (the Chargers’ Week 1 win over the Chiefs in São Paulo, Brazil, was streamed on YouTube) averaged 6.2 million viewers, up 32 percent from the network’s international games in 2024 to make this season its most-watched international slate. The Commanders’ loss in Madrid averaged 5.9 million viewers on NFL Network, ranking among the network’s five most-watched international games.
For nearly two decades, the league’s international play was limited to the American Bowl, a series of preseason exhibition games that ran from 1986 to 2005, and NFL Europe, a developmental league that lasted from 1991 to 2007.
In 2005, the NFL held its first regular-season game abroad: The San Francisco 49ers crushed the Arizona Cardinals in “NFL Fútbol Americano” at Mexico City’s Estadio Azteca.
The NFL’s International Series launched two years later and has since held games in eight markets — London, Mexico City, Munich, Frankfurt, Berlin, São Paulo, Dublin and Madrid — with plans to go beyond.
Earlier this year, the NFL announced its deal to play multiple games in Melbourne, Australia, starting in 2026, with the Los Angeles Rams as the designated home team. It also announced a commitment of at least three games in Rio de Janeiro over a five-year period, and a return to Mexico City for the first time since 2022.
And according to NOLA.com, New Orleans Saints President Dennis Lauscha recently said the team expects to play an upcoming game in Paris.
Separate from the league-run international series, the Bills played a home game a year in Toronto from 2008 to 13. And since 2022, the Jaguars’ longstanding commitment to play games in London has been handled by the team, separate from the league’s international slate.
Commissioner Roger Goodell has said the league’s goal is to eventually have 16 regular-season games a season overseas, so each team plays one international competition a year. But a 2023 resolution allowed for a maximum of eight international regular-season games a season, not including the London games administered by the Jaguars.
At the NFL’s fall meetings in New York last month, Gerrit Meier, the league’s senior VP/managing director international, said the league expects to top the six international games it had this season in 2026.
“Whether that reaches the maximum of eight organized games or not, we will see,” Meier said. “But the definite idea is to get ourselves to the maximum number of games that we can.”
Meier added that the selected markets for games are ones the league plans to commit to long term, much like it has for London, Rio and Melbourne.
In March, the Commanders were granted international marketing rights in the United Arab Emirates as part of the NFL’s Global Markets Program. The program was established in 2022 and gives clubs international rights to expand their brands and engage in fan and commercial activities in certain markets. All 32 teams now have rights across 21 international markets.
The UAE, however, has yet to host an NFL game and, according to Meier, is not in consideration to host one anytime soon.
“I think given the newness of the global market program over the last few years, we have also provided and allowed to go and have clubs apply for and granted rights into markets where we kind of have clearly said we probably wouldn’t, in the short term, play games or we are not there yet from an evaluation perspective,” he said. “I think the UAE is a good example. … That being said, we’ve been very, very open that the Middle East is an interesting area for us.”
The NFL typically announces the designated teams for its international series in January. The full slate of matchups and dates is revealed during the regular-season schedule release, in May.