The full 2026 NFL schedule dropped Thursday, May 14 at 8 PM ET on ESPN and NFL Network, with the international slate released a day earlier. The headline numbers: a record nine games outside the United States across four continents, a Wednesday season opener in Seattle, a Thanksgiving Eve game, a three-game Christmas tripleheader, and Netflix's largest NFL package yet. Here is every confirmed prime-time, holiday, and international fixture on the 18-week calendar.
Following along live? Head to watch.uristocrat.com for the full 2026 NFL calendar — every kickoff, network, and streaming window in one place.
The Wednesday opener
The season starts on a Wednesday. September 9, in Seattle: New England Patriots at Seattle Seahawks, 8:20 PM ET on NBC. The defending Super Bowl LX champion Seahawks host the NFL Kickoff Game on a non-traditional weeknight because the league needed to clear Thursday for its first regular-season game ever played in Australia. The matchup is also a marquee draw on its own terms — the Patriots are coming off the Drake Maye-led playoff push, and Seattle is the league's hottest primetime franchise.
This is the first Wednesday opener since 2012 and the first time the Kickoff Game has been moved off Thursday in over a decade. It is a structural admission that the league's international ambitions are now reshaping the domestic calendar — not the other way around. Seattle, for its part, gets a franchise-record six primetime games on the back of the title run.
Week 1, confirmed
- Wed, Sept. 9 — Patriots at Seahawks, 8:20 PM ET (NBC). NFL Kickoff Game.
- Thu, Sept. 10 — 49ers at Rams, 8:35 PM ET (Netflix). Melbourne Cricket Ground, Australia. The MCG hosts the NFL's first Australian regular-season game (Friday, Sept. 11 local). Two NFC West rivals exported to the Southern Hemisphere as the marquee international opener — and the league's most aggressive Netflix integration to date.
- Sun, Sept. 13 — Cowboys at Giants, 8:20 PM ET (NBC). Sunday Night Football's Week 1 game at MetLife. The Cowboys have opened their season in prime time in seven of the last eight years; the NFL knows what its biggest TV brand is.
- Mon, Sept. 14 — Broncos at Chiefs, 8:15 PM ET (ESPN). Sean Payton and Bo Nix's defending AFC West champion Broncos visit Andy Reid's Chiefs. The new boss has to fight the old boss in front of the camera on Day 1.
The record international slate (all nine)
Nine games across four continents, seven countries, and eight stadiums. The most in NFL history.
- Week 1 — Thu, Sept. 10: 49ers at Rams, Melbourne Cricket Ground, Melbourne, Australia (Netflix, 8:35 PM ET). New market.
- Week 3 — Sun, Sept. 27: Ravens at Cowboys, Maracanã Stadium, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (CBS/Paramount+, 4:25 PM ET). Cowboys' first-ever Brazil appearance.
- Week 4 — Sun, Oct. 4: Colts at Commanders, London (Tottenham Hotspur Stadium), 9:30 AM ET.
- Week 5 — Sun, Oct. 11: Eagles at Jaguars, London (Tottenham), 9:30 AM ET. First of back-to-back Jaguars home games abroad.
- Week 6 — Sun, Oct. 18: Texans at Jaguars, London (Wembley Stadium), 9:30 AM ET.
- Week 7 — Sun, Oct. 25: Steelers at Saints, Stade de France, Paris, France, 9:30 AM ET. New market. First-ever NFL regular-season game in France.
- Week 9 — Sun, Nov. 8: Bengals at Falcons, Bernabéu Stadium, Madrid, Spain (NFL Network, 9:30 AM ET). New market. First-ever NFL regular-season game in Spain.
- Week 10 — Sun, Nov. 15: Patriots at Lions, Munich, Germany (FOX, 9:30 AM ET). Lions designated as home team.
- Week 11 — Sun, Nov. 22: Vikings at 49ers, Estadio Banorte, Mexico City (NBC, 8:20 PM ET). First-ever international Sunday Night Football game. The renovated Azteca's first NFL game since 2022.
Read the list and the strategy is obvious. The league used 2026 to plant flags in Australia, Spain, and France while keeping London (three games) and Mexico City as established anchors. The Jaguars, Commanders, Lions, and Rams are the workhorse franchises with formal international home commitments. Nine games means roughly one out of every nine regular-season Sundays will be played outside U.S. borders. The Mexico City game getting Sunday Night Football placement is the biggest signal yet that international windows are no longer a logistical afterthought — they are a primetime product.
Thanksgiving Week (the most crowded slate of the year)
- Wed, Nov. 25 — Packers at Rams, 8 PM ET (Netflix). Thanksgiving Eve at SoFi Stadium — the first Thanksgiving Eve game in modern NFL history, and a Lombardi-implied rematch sketch. Both teams get a Week 11 bye for travel and rest.
- Thu, Nov. 26 — Bears at Lions, 1 PM ET (CBS/Paramount+). The Lions host the traditional early game against their NFC North rival.
- Thu, Nov. 26 — Eagles at Cowboys, 4:30 PM ET (FOX). Divisional rematch and almost certainly the league's most-watched game of the season. First Cowboys-Eagles Thanksgiving meeting since 2015.
- Thu, Nov. 26 — Chiefs at Bills, 8:20 PM ET (NBC). The night cap is an AFC title-implied rematch. Mahomes-Allen in primetime on Thanksgiving is exactly the slot the league sells in May.
- Fri, Nov. 27 — Black Friday, 3 PM ET (Amazon). Amazon's third Black Friday game.
December Saturdays and the Christmas tripleheader
- Sat, Dec. 19 — 4:30 PM ET (FOX) and 8 PM ET (CBS/Paramount+). Standard Saturday doubleheader as the league moves out of Big Ten / SEC championship territory.
- Thu, Dec. 24 — 8:15 PM ET (Amazon). Christmas Eve Thursday Night Football.
- Fri, Dec. 25 — Packers at Bears, 1 PM ET (Netflix). Soldier Field hosts the Christmas opener — a playoff rematch and the league's biggest historic rivalry on the year's biggest streaming window.
- Fri, Dec. 25 — Bills at Broncos, 4:30 PM ET (Netflix). Empower Field hosts Allen vs. Nix — another playoff-implied rematch.
- Fri, Dec. 25 — Rams at Seahawks, 8:15 PM ET (FOX). Lumen Field nightcap pits the defending champion Seahawks against the NFC West-rival Rams. Goodell has been explicit the Christmas slate is permanent — three playoff rematches across two networks confirm it.
The closing stretch (Weeks 17–18)
- Sat, Jan. 2 — 4:30 PM ET (NBC) and 8 PM ET (Peacock exclusive). The Peacock exclusive continues the league's push behind paywalled prestige windows.
- Sun, Jan. 3 — 8:20 PM ET (NBC). Final regular Sunday Night Football of the season.
- Sat, Jan. 9 — Triple-feature: 1 PM ET (Netflix), 4:30 PM ET (ESPN), 8 PM ET (ESPN). Week 18 opens with three games on Saturday before the league flexes Sunday's lineup based on playoff positioning.
- Sun, Jan. 10 — 8:20 PM ET (NBC). The traditional flex-scheduled Week 18 SNF that decides which team's playoff seed gets settled in primetime.
Who got the prime-time love
- Seahawks — 6 primetime games. Franchise record since 2000, on the back of the Super Bowl LX run. Seattle headlines Week 1 (Wednesday opener) and closes Christmas Day (FOX).
- Bears — 7 premium games (5 primetime + 2 standalone). Caleb Williams's third year is the league's most-bet primetime story, and the schedule reflects it. Two Netflix windows (Christmas Day vs. Packers) plus standard SNF/MNF/TNF rotation.
- Cowboys — 6 primetime games. No franchise is bigger TV inventory than Dallas. Week 1 SNF, Thanksgiving Day, plus four additional primetime windows.
- Lions — 5 primetime games plus the Thanksgiving Day opener and the Munich Sunday morning slot. Detroit's first appearance in Europe as the designated home team, hosting the Patriots.
- Streaming exclusives. Netflix carries the Australia opener, Thanksgiving Eve, two Christmas Day windows, and a Week 18 Saturday game — a five-game package that triples its 2025 NFL footprint. Amazon, Peacock, and YouTube each carry exclusive 2026 windows too.
The bigger frame
The NFL schedule release has become a content product unto itself — team accounts spent Thursday morning posting elaborate schedule-announcement videos that routinely outperform anything else those teams post all year. The Eagles' viral 2024 schedule video ("Are You Ready For Some Football") is still the genre's benchmark. The league has built an entire downstream economy of schedule-day content, betting partner activations, and ESPN/NFL Network special programming around what is, on paper, just a list of dates.
That economy works because every adult fan in America is already mentally drafting their fall calendar by mid-May. The schedule release is the gun going off on six months of "I can do that weekend, but not that one." It's also the moment the league finally tells you whether your team's primetime allocation reflects its actual quality, or whether the broadcast networks have written them off before the season starts. That second read is usually the more honest one.
Thursday's release landed during the same week the NBA playoffs hit their second-round inflection point — meaning by Friday morning, the American sports calendar will have its summer (NBA Finals, Stanley Cup Final, U.S. Open) and its fall (the entire 18-week NFL slate plus nine international weekends) sketched out simultaneously. The international games are the structural story. The Wednesday opener is the strategic tell. Netflix taking five exclusive windows is the financial tell. Everything else, now confirmed, is execution.
Track every upcoming game
Now that the full slate is live, head to watch.uristocrat.com to see every upcoming NFL game — kickoff times, networks, streaming windows, international fixtures, and the full 18-week calendar in one place. It's where to live during the season, especially when the broadcast map is fragmented across Amazon, Netflix, Peacock, YouTube, and the four traditional networks.
Full release: Thursday, May 14, 8 PM ET on ESPN, NFL Network, and NFL.com. International games: released Wednesday, May 13. Track all upcoming games: watch.uristocrat.com.
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