Each season starts in late July or early August and ends in May, with a two-month hiatus between December and February.
As of 2023, only four of the 12 founding members of the Croatian league have never been relegated: Dinamo Zagreb, Hajduk Split, Osijek and Rijeka.
Affected by the ongoing war in Croatia, the first Prva HNL season was held over the course of a single calendar year, from February to June 1992.
Eight times in history have HNL teams entered the group stages of UEFA Champions League.
In the 1994–95 season, Hajduk Split eliminated Legia Warsaw in the qualifying round and entered the group stage.
The following season, Croatia also entered the group stage after eliminating MTK Budapest in the third qualifying round.
In the 2011–12 season, Dinamo Zagreb advanced through three qualifying rounds and were drawn in the group with Real Madrid, Lyon and Ajax.
In the 2015-16 season, Dinamo Zagreb entered the group stage and recorded notable win 2–1 over Arsenal.
Latest entry to the group stage was in 2019-20 where Dinamo Zagreb finished fourth behind Manchester City, Atalanta and Shakhtar with 2 draws vs Shakhtar and a 4–0 win over Atalanta, with controversial refereeing decisions in both draws — a win in either would have sent them through to the Round of 16 as runners-up.
Since 2003, the league has been named after its main sponsor, giving it the following names (Logos see below): Europe's top football body, the UEFA, ranks national leagues every year according to coefficients calculated based on each nation's clubs results in international competitions.
As of 5 November 2023 Source: Bert Kassies' website Archived 12 April 2022 at the Wayback Machine (country rankings); last updated 29 May 2022 As of 8 February 2025 Source: Bert Kassies' website Archived 12 April 2022 at the Wayback Machine (team rankings); last updated 29 May 2022
[8] Most of the clubs weren't satisfied with the scheduling of fixtures and demanded a move from Sunday afternoon to Saturday evening.
[11] In November 2010, broadcasting rights were sold to marketing agency Digitel Komunikacije for a period of five years, beginning with 2011–12 season.
After the negotiations fell through with public broadcasting television HRT, which covered Prva HNL for the past twenty seasons, Digitel signed a deal with Hrvatski Telekom.
The matches were broadcast on Arenasport, a cable television network with five channels, available to subscribers of MAXtv, IPTV solution from T-HT subsidiary T-Com.
Former Dinamo Zagreb striker Igor Cvitanović held the record for most Prva HNL goals with 126 until April 2012.
Goran Vlaović, Robert Špehar, Igor Cvitanović, Tomislav Šokota and Ivica Olić have won two titles each.
[24] Six goals is the record individual scoring total for a player in a single Prva HNL match, held by Marijo Dodik.
[26] The highest-scoring match to date in the Prva HNL occurred on 12 December 1993 when Dinamo Zagreb defeated minnows NK Pazinka 10–1.