Top 10 Highest-Paid Athletes

The number at the top is largely underwritten by Saudi Arabia. Cristiano Ronaldo leads by a distance at $275 million, with Karim Benzema eighth at $104 million — both play in the Saudi Pro League, and between them they account for nearly $380 million. No statistic captures the reshaping of global sports pay by Gulf capital more directly than this one.

The most counter-intuitive entry is Shohei Ohtani. His ten-year, $700 million deal with the Dodgers is the largest contract in North American sports history, yet $680 million of it is deferred to 2034 and beyond, leaving him a salary of just $2 million a year during the contract. His place in the top ten rests almost entirely on endorsements.

The on-field/off-field split is equally revealing: roughly two-thirds of Stephen Curry's $156 million comes from off the court, as does most of LeBron James's total, while Dak Prescott and Benzema earn almost purely from their contracts. By sport, football claims four places, with basketball and baseball on two each, and boxing and American football one apiece. Tyson Fury is the only boxer here, and the purse from a single fight was enough to put him third — which is also why boxers' rankings swing wildly from year to year.

One gap remains unbroken: no woman has ever appeared in the top ten of Forbes' combined list.