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Today, Forbes is all about billionaires in sports: two new athletes have reached the $1 billion career earnings mark Tiger Woods became the first active athlete to surpass $1 billion in career earnings in 2009. It took another 8 years for someone to repeat this achievement, with boxer Floyd Mayweather finally breaking the mark in 2017. The club is no longer as exclusive as it used to be. With more money pouring into sports than ever before, nine athletes have already reached at least $1 billion in combined cash income, including on-field income, such as salaries and prize money, and off-field income-such as endorsements, before taxes or agency fees. And two more are on track to join this group within the next year.
Basketball stars Stephen Curry and Kevin Durant are the latest additions, each crossing the $1 billion mark in the 2025-26 season. Curry and Durant are expected to earn $203.6 million and $104.9 million, respectively. As the NBA's two highest-paid players in 2026-27, they are poised to surpass Mayweather, Roger Federer and Phil Mickelson, taking fifth and sixth place on the all-time money list by spring. The top four will be harder to catch up with. This year, Cristiano Ronaldo became the first active athlete to reach $2 billion in career earnings, as his salary reached a new high after joining Al-
Nasr of the Saudi Professional League in 2023, and his endorsement portfolio became one of the most lucrative in all of sport. The 41-year-old football legend is set to increase his lead at the top thanks to another $300 million in payouts this season. This will bring his total lifetime income to $2.39 billion Ronaldo's longtime rival, Lionel Messi, is set to join him in the multi-billionaire club by next year, along with Woods, who still earns an estimated $45 million a year off the field, even though injuries have kept him from playing much in recent years. LeBron James is in fourth place with $1.68 billion in career earnings to date. And although he agreed to a meager, by his standards, salary of $3.9 million for this season to
compete for the championship with the Philadelphia 76ers in the event of his career, he earns about $90 million thanks to an extensive list of partners and other business projects. The top four also have another distinction as the only current athletes to become billionaires. Although Mickelson, Federer, Mayweather, Durant and Curry have all surpassed $1 billion in career earnings, Forbes estimates that their net worths fall short of $1 billion after taxes, agent fees and other expenses are taken into account. Meanwhile, Michael Jordan, the world's richest former athlete with an estimated net worth of $4.7 billion, is missing from the list of the highest-earning
athletes of all time because Forbes only considers the income athletes earned during their active careers. Most of the money that "His Airness" received from the Jordan brand and other sponsors, not to mention the sale of the Charlotte Hornets team in 2023 for $3 billion, he earned after his career ended. In fact, throughout his entire NBA career, Jordan only received $94 million in playing salary, not accounting for inflation. This amount is easily surpassed by modern NBA stars in less than two years of work However, in many ways, 21st-century sports stars can thank Jordan for creating a model for how to turn their popularity and on- court success into profitable personal brands
In 1984, when Nike was still a newcomer to the apparel industry, the company made an unprecedented bet, giving Jordan $2.5 million over five years, plus a percentage of every pair of shoes sold. This year, Curry signed a deal with Chinese brand Li-Ning, reportedly worth $400 million over 10 years. It's also no coincidence that by the end of this season, five of the six highest-paid athletes in history will be basketball and football players. The 10 highest- paid NBA players are expected to earn $958 million this season, surpassing the world's richest soccer players with their $942 million and leaving the top 10 from other sports far behind. But while the NBA is benefiting from an 11-
year, $76 billion media deal that is raising the league's salary cap, it will take the next generation of stars like Giannis Antetokounmpo, Anthony Edwards and Jayson Tatum several more years to join James, Curry and Durant in the billionaire club at the current rate. A full review and the entire list can be found in Hank Tucker's article on forbes.com. With you was Kieran Meadows from Forbes. Thank you for watching.
