The Volleyball Nations League (VNL) will be played based on a new competition formula as of the 2022 edition. The annual league for men's and women's national volleyball teams will again see the best 16 teams per gender compete for the title of VNL Champion, however the number of matches, locations and team travels have been reduced to optimize the performance of the teams, the quality of the events and promotion worldwide.

With a total of 104 matches per gender throughout the Preliminary Phase and the Final Phase, every team plays a minimum of 12 matches.

Following the end of the previous VNL edition, the 16 participating teams were ranked from 1st to 16th as per the FIVB Volleyball World Ranking. In 2022, each team will play 12 matches over 3 weeks against equally strong opponents in the Preliminary Phase – against 3 teams ranked from 1st to 4th, 3 teams ranked from 5th to 8th, 3 teams ranked 9th to 12th and 3 teams ranked from 13th to 16th.