The NFL announced on February 18 that the San Francisco 49ers will serve as the home team for the league's 2026 Mexico City regular-season game. The game will be played at Estadio Banorte, the recently renamed and renovated former Estadio Azteca, which has been closed since May 2024 for renovations ahead of the 2026 FIFA World Cup and reopens in March.
The announcement is part of a new three-year NFL commitment to play regular-season games in Mexico City through 2028. The full schedule, including the opponent and game date, will be released in the spring. Mexico has hosted five previous NFL regular-season games, in 2005, 2016, 2017, 2019, and 2022, with California-based franchises playing in all of them.
The 49ers have played in Mexico City twice before — a 31-14 loss to the Arizona Cardinals in 2005 (the NFL's first international regular-season game) and a 38-10 win over the Cardinals in 2022. Mexico has approximately 40 million NFL fans, the largest fanbase outside the United States.
This Mexico game will be the 49ers' second international game of the 2026 season. The team was previously announced as a participant in the NFL's first-ever game in Australia, where they will face the Los Angeles Rams. The NFL is set to play a record nine international games in 2026 across four continents and seven countries.
