A list of men, women and wheelchair senior international rugby league matches played throughout 2025.
A denotes a match that did not contribute to the IRL World Rankings - i.e. not a senior international match (SIM) as designated by the International Rugby League (IRL).
The weekend of 25/26 October set a record for the most people attending international rugby league matches globally with 126,494; the bulk of the attendance came from the opening test of the Ashes and the men's/women's Pacific Cup second round double header. The record had been held by match week two of the 1957 Rugby League World Cup, where both games saw 86,655 in cumulative attendance.
The year was originally scheduled to contain the 2025 Rugby League World Cup, however was cancelled with and replaced by the 2026 Rugby League World Cup as a result of France withdrawing as hosts in 2023.
The following were the rankings at the beginning of the season.
and men's teams had intended to play a second game two days prior on 26 February 18:00 kick-off at the same venue. The game was cancelled after copper cables were stolen from the floodlights leaving them inoperable. The men's and women's double header on the 28 February were brought forward by four hours as a result.
This match was initially planned to be Test 1 of a three match women's Ashes series to be concluded in the autumn. Originally set to take place in Australia but later switched to England alongside the equivalent men's games. The match, which come the day of the fixture was no longer being described as part of the Ashes, saw a blowout 90âÂÂ4 victory in Australia's favour. In the weeks that followed, criticism occurred as a result of the gulf in performance which highlighted the superior set up that women's rugby league had in Australia compared to England. No fixtures of the 2025 Women's Ashes were planned as of 26 March 2025, the date of announcement of the 2025 Men's Ashes; and in the months that followed, doubts emerged over the productiveness of contesting the remaining fixtures. The 2025 women's Ashes were officially confirmed as shelved in the International Rugby League's biannual ranking updates in July, with no mention of the proposed fixtures in their fixture preview for the next rankings cycle.
This was intended to be a three match series however the first match, scheduled for 4 October at Rugby School Nigeria, Lagos, was cancelled due to a delay in the construction of the facility.
A fixture between and had originally been proposed as a warm-up for both teams ahead of France's World Cup qualifier and Australia's Ashes Series on the weekend of 18/19 October. The game however was vetoed by Australia's Rugby League Players Association and was replaced with two joint training sessions in London.
31 October to 2 November
Roots Rugby are a cohort of USARL players of African and/or Caribbean heritage. The games on 26 November were originally scheduled to be against Nigeria for both men's and women's team. The women's fixture was replaced by an extra game against Ghana, while the men's game was replaced by a game against a "Ghana President's XIII" team.
The double-header matches between the USA and Jamaica were cancelled due to the disruption in Jamaica caused by Hurricane Melissa.