Cristiano Ronaldo the highest earning athlete of 2023! Check out the big comparison of each sport. Which one makes the most money?

Basketball players dominated the list of the 100 highest paid athletes in 2023. But football players dominated the top ten. Cristiano Ronaldo is the overwhelming leader of the ranking, surpassing the rest of the “starting field” by tens of millions of dollars.

The renowned Sportico website, which came on the market in June 2020 and deals with the combination of the world of sports and finance, has come up with a new ranking of the 100 highest earning athletes for the past year 2023. Let’s take a look not only at the ranking of the athletes themselves. But also at the comparison of the individual sports.

At the outset, it should be stressed that we are only working with the top 100 of the rankings. So the overall volume of data may have an impact on the comparisons below. Nevertheless, the rankings still have a telling value, according to which fans can at least get some idea of which sport is making the most money.

Basketball players dominate the top 100 highest paid athletes for 2023

By a landslide, NBA players hold the most athletes in that ranking. There are a total of 40 basketball players in the top 100, generating just under two billion US dollars in revenue. It probably comes as a surprise to no one that the highest-ranking player is L.A. Lakers’ LeBron James.

The second place in this comparison is occupied by football with 11 representatives. They earned a total of $993 million last year, and although they have fewer representatives in the top 100 highest-earning athletes than, for example, American football or baseball, the high salaries of the biggest football stars generated more revenue overall than those of the named industries.

For a comparison of the industries in the rankings and the number of individual representatives along with their total earnings, see the table below:

Footballers dominate the top ten, with Cristiano Ronaldo coming out on top

In the following, we will focus on the specific names in the top ten of the ranking. It will probably come as a surprise to few that Cristiano Ronaldo is at the very top of the list. He has climbed from last year’s third place to the top thanks to an insane contract and sponsorship income in Saudi Arabia.

Ronaldo has dethroned living basketball legend LeBron James, who was at the top of the rankings in 2022, from the top spot. The American basketball player dropped to fourth place behind eight-time Ballon d’Or winner Lionel Messi, who occupies the third spot with lucrative sponsorship deals.

The biggest ever jumper in the entire ranking is 2023 Masters winner and Spanish rebel Jon Rahm, who shocked the golf world after his Major win by moving to the controversial Saudi-funded LIV Golf league. And it was this lucrative deal that secured him a place among the sport’s global elite.

As far as sports are concerned, it is footballers who have made the most money from the top ten, with four representatives, just like basketball. The top ten highest paid athletes of 2023 can be found in the table below:

The full ranking of the 100 highest earning athletes of 2023 can be found at this link.

Source: Sportico