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The best players in sports continue to reset the market.
On Wednesday, it was quarterback Patrick Mahomes’s turn to do so. While the superstar quarterback is coming off a down year, which saw him suffer a torn ACL and the Chiefs miss the playoffs for the first time in his career, he remains a three-time Super Bowl champion and one of the top players in the game. As such, he signed a record-setting extension to make him the first half-billion-dollar player in NFL history.
But where does Mahomes's new contract rank among the highest-paid athletes in the four major U.S. professional sports leagues? Here’s a breakdown of the highest-paid athletes across the NFL, NBA, MLB and NHL, as well as the highest-paid athletes in U.S. women’s sports.
The 10 highest-paid athletes in U.S. sports
Here are the 10 highest-paid athletes in the four major U.S. professional sports, based on total contract value.
|
Athlete |
Sport |
Total Contract Value |
Annual Salary |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Juan Soto |
MLB |
$765 million |
$51 million |
|
Shohei Ohtani |
MLB |
$700 million |
$70 million |
|
Vladimir Guerrero Jr. |
MLB |
$500 million |
$35.71 million |
|
Patrick Mahomes |
NFL |
$504.75 million |
$64 million |
|
Mike Trout |
MLB |
$426.5 million |
$35.54 million |
|
Mookie Betts |
MLB |
$365 million |
$30.42 million |
|
Aaron Judge |
MLB |
$360 million |
$40 million |
|
Manny Machado |
MLB |
$350 million |
$31.82 million |
|
Francisco Lindor |
MLB |
$341 million |
$34.1 million |
|
Fernando Tatis Jr. |
MLB |
$340 million |
$24.28 million |
The biggest contract among the four major U.S. male professional sports leagues belongs to outfielder Juan Soto, who signed a 15-year, $765 million contract to leave the Yankees for the Mets in 2024. The Dodgers' two-way star Shohei Ohtani remains the highest-paid player based on annual salary, earning an average of $70 million per year over his 10-year deal—though much of his money has been deferred.
The highest-paid athletes among the four major U.S. sports leagues are almost all MLB players. While this makes sense, considering MLB has by far the longest season and the players typically sign much longer contracts than in the NFL, it also helps that the league does not have a salary cap (yet).
The only non-MLB star to crack the above list is Chiefs quarterback and NFL superstar Patrick Mahomes, who just agreed to a new record-setting extension with Kansas City through the 2033 season. Mahomes’s contract now carries a total value of $504.75 million and an average per year of $64 million, making him the highest-paid player in the league based on total value and average salary.
The highest-paid athlete in the four major U.S. professional sports
|
Sport |
Athlete |
Total Contract Value |
Annual Salary |
|---|---|---|---|
|
MLB |
Juan Soto |
$765,000,000 |
$51 million |
|
NFL |
Patrick Mahomes |
$504,750,000 |
$64 million |
|
NBA |
Jayson Tatum |
$313,933,410 |
$62.79 million |
|
NHL |
Kirill Kaprizov |
$136,000,000 |
$17 million |
MLB has dominated when it comes to the biggest contracts in U.S. professional sports, with Juan Soto and Shohei Ohtani easily topping the salaries of all other star athletes. While there are 14 baseball players with a higher total contract value than Jayson Tatum, the NBA’s highest-paid player, there are just two NFL players who top his total salary: Mahomes and Josh Allen.
Over in the NHL, Kirill Kaprizov is the league’s highest-paid player with a total contract value of $136 million and an average salary of $17 million. He is one of four players in the league with a contract above $100 million; the other three are Leon Draisaitl, Jack Eichel and Nathan MacKinnon.
Highest-paid female athletes in U.S. sports
While the highest-paid female athletes are nowhere near their male counterparts in terms of pay, they are seeing their salaries increase as women’s sports continue to gain popularity. Here’s a look at the highest-paid female athletes in the two major U.S. team sports leagues—the WNBA and NWSL.
The new collective bargaining agreement gave practically the entire WNBA a raise, with the top athletes receiving salaries of over $1 million for the first time in league history. Three-time WNBA MVP and champion A’ja Wilson is naturally the league’s highest-paid player after signing a three-year, $5 million contract with an annual average salary of $1.667 million.
Over in the NWSL, Catarina Macario became the highest-paid player in the league when she signed with the San Diego Wave through the 2030 season on a deal worth around $8 million. She topped Trinity Rodman, who agreed to a three-year contract worth over $2 million per year in January.
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EVA GEITHEIM
Eva Geitheim is an NFL writer at Sports Illustrated. Prior to joining SI in December 2024, she wrote for Newsweek, Gymnastics Now and Dodgers Nation. A Bay Area native, she has a bachelor’s in communications from UCLA. When not writing, she can be found baking or rewatching Gilmore Girls.
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