Mexican boxer Saúl ‘Canelo’ Álvarez has secured the second position on Forbes’ list of the 50 highest-paid athletes in the world for 2026.
The prestigious magazine published its annual list on May 22, with Álvarez’s earnings estimated at $170 million.
Top Earners Dominated by Men
Cristiano Ronaldo topped the list for the fourth consecutive year with estimated earnings of $300 million.
Lionel Messi is third with $140 million. LeBron James of the Los Angeles Lakers is fourth with earnings of $137.8 million. Shohei Ohtani of the Los Angeles Dodgers rounds out the top five with earnings of over $127 million.
Forbes’ metrics consider earnings from direct competition, such as salaries, bonuses, and prize money, alongside commercial revenue streams like endorsements, image rights, events and memorabilia.
Absence of Women in Top Rankings
For the third year in a row, no woman made it into Forbes’ top 50 list.
American tennis player Coco Gauff leads the list of highest-earning female athletes with an estimated $33 million in 2025. This figure is more than $20 million short of the amount needed to enter the top 50, which was $54.6 million earned by tennis player Jannik Sinner.
Since 2012, the only women to break into the Top 50 have been tennis players: Serena Williams, Maria Sharapova, Li Na, and Naomi Osaka, who holds the female record with $60 million in 2021.
Revenue Disparity in Team Sports
Forbes argues that the gap widens drastically in team sports due to the volume of revenue generated by television rights. The WNBA, for example, has a media contract that averages $281 million annually, while the NBA operates on $7 billion a year.
Base salaries are also incomparable. LeBron James’ $137.8 million earnings are 11 times the total earnings of Caitlin Clark ($12.1 million). James’ salary of $52.6 million dwarfs Clark’s $529,000, which does not even reach the NBA rookie minimum salary of $1.3 million.