NFL releases 2025 season schedule; preseason starts in Canton

NFL Published on : 5/15/2025

The NFL has announced its 18-week, 272-game regular-season schedule for 2025.The NFL has announced its 18-week, 272-game regular-season schedule for 2025, which kicks off on Thursday night, Sept. 4, in Philadelphia and concludes with 16 division games in Week 18 — two on Saturday, Jan. 3, and 14 on Sunday, Jan. 4.

The 2025 NFL schedule, powered by Amazon Web Services (AWS), will feature each team playing 17 regular-season games and three preseason games for the fifth consecutive year. The 17th game will feature teams from opposing conferences that finished in the same standing within their respective divisions the previous season. The AFC will be the home conference for the 17th game in 2025. For how opponents were determined for the 2025 season, click here.

The NFL uses AWS to power its schedule-making process. There are approximately a quadrillion possible schedule combinations each NFL season and over 26,000 factors to take into consideration such as stadium availability, travel requirements, primetime games, competitive fairness and division rivalries. The NFL uses AWS to run high performance computing workloads to find the best possible schedule each year. For more information, click here.

The NFL’s 106th season begins with the league’s annual primetime kickoff game, as the defending Super Bowl Champion Philadelphia Eagles host the Dallas Cowboys at Lincoln Financial Field on Thursday, Sept. 4 (8:20 p.m. ET, NBC).

The NFL's preseason schedule starts July 31 (8 p.m. ET, NBC) with the Pro Football Hall of Fame Game, which features the Detroit Lions vs. the Los Angeles Chargers at Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium. 

For more about the 2025 NFL schedule, read the full news release here.


NFL plans historic international schedule