For the first time, 11 women have surpassed $10 million in earnings, with tennis superstar Coco Gauff trailing only Naomi Osaka and Serena Williams on the all-time list.
By Brett Knight and Justin Birnbaum, Forbes Staff
Women’s sports are riding a wave of momentum, and the rising tide is—finally—starting to lift players’ pay. Indiana Fever rookie phenom Caitlin Clark, who helped push the WNBA to record highs for attendance and viewership, earned an estimated $8.1 million this year, matching the women’s basketball record set last year by the now-retired Candace Parker. Thai golfer Jeeno Thitikul took home a $4 million check at November’s CME Group Tour Championship—the largest prize in women’s golf history—while her LPGA Tour rival Nelly Korda finished with an estimated $12.5 million in total income, the best mark by a golfer in the 17 years Forbes has ranked female athletes’ earnings.
Meanwhile, 20-year-old tennis star Coco Gauff’s estimated $34.4 million gives her one of the best years ever recorded by a female athlete, behind only Naomi Osaka and Serena Williams, who peaked at $57.3 million and $45.9 million in total earnings, respectively, on Forbes’ list for 2021.
Together, the 20 highest-paid female athletes—a list that includes Korda at No. 8, Thitikul at No. 12 and Clark at No. 13, alongside the top-ranked Gauff—collected more than $258 million in 2024. That figure just edges 2022’s top 20, when Osaka and Williams accounted for more than $92 million between them, and represents a 15% increase over 2023’s $226 million.
The women’s combined total, however, remains less than 12% of the equivalent number for the top 20 male athletes, who hauled in an estimated $2.23 billion on Forbes’ 2024 list of the world’s highest-paid athletes overall, tracking the 12 months ending in May. (No women featured in the top 50 of that ranking.)
Traditionally, female athletes have had fewer and lower-paying endorsement opportunities than men—the top 20 women made an estimated $191 million off the field this year, compared with $624 million for the men—but the big difference is on the field, with playing salaries, bonuses and prize money. The WNBA’s “supermax” salary, for instance, was $241,984 this season. In the NBA, by contrast, 41 players this season will eclipse Gauff’s total earnings with their salaries alone, according to contract database Spotrac.
The gap is less stark in individual sports, but there are still disparities. In golf, Thitikul broke the LPGA Tour’s 17-year-old single-season prize money record in 2024 with $6.1 million, less than what 33 men from the PGA Tour and LIV Golf made this year. And in tennis, while the four Grand Slam tournaments now pay equal prize money to men and women, smaller tournaments don’t make the same guarantee.
In all, only four of the 20 highest-paid female athletes earned more on the field than they did off it, and the top 20’s on-field sum of $68 million represented 26% of their total, the vast majority of it from tennis players. The top 20 male athletes, by comparison, made 72% of their total on the field—almost an exact inversion of the women’s ratio.
The compensation discrepancy starts with revenue—women’s leagues simply have smaller pots to pay out of. But that math may be starting to change. The WNBA will reportedly receive $200 million a year in national TV money as part of the 11-year, $76 billion media agreements the NBA signed over the summer, a sixfold increase from the WNBA’s previous deal with ESPN, according to Sportico. The LPGA Tour is offering $131 million in purses across its 33 tournaments next year—a 90% increase since 2021—and the WTA Tour has pledged to achieve equal pay between male and female tennis players at combined 500- and 1000-level events by 2033.
Meanwhile, the NWSL, which has been drawing investment from big names including Disney CEO Bob Iger, agreed to eliminate its draft and implement a free-agent system as part of a collective bargaining agreement announced in August. And new women’s leagues are sprouting up in hockey (the Professional Women’s Hockey League), softball (the Athletes Unlimited Softball League) and basketball (Unrivaled), among other sports.
In one other promising sign for the growing financial viability of women’s pro sports, while the list of the highest-paid female athletes remains dominated by tennis, the mix of sports is getting more balanced. This year’s ranking includes three golfers, two basketball players, a soccer player, a gymnast, a freestyle skier and a badminton player. (Five years ago, the entire top 10 came from tennis.)
Eleven athletes surpassed $10 million in earnings this year, according to Forbes estimates—the first time there have been more than eight—and 17 members of the ranking’s top 20 are under 30 years old. In fact, the median age is just 26—meaning these athletes’ best years may still be ahead of them.
THE HIGHEST-PAID FEMALE ATHLETES 2024
#1. $34.4 million
Sport: Tennis | Nationality: U.S. | Age: 20 | On-Field: $9.4 million • Off-Field: $25 million
Gauff served as Team USA’s co-flag bearer at the Paris Olympics’ opening ceremony in July, and while her level of play dipped a bit over the summer, she was back at her best in the fall, winning the China Open and the WTA Finals in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. That last victory came with a $4.8 million check, but the 20-year-old star makes even more money off the court, where she recently added hair-care brand Carol’s Daughter, Fanatics and Naked Juice to a list of long-term partners that now goes 11 deep. She also appeared on the cover of Wheaties boxes during the U.S. Open, honoring her title run in Flushing Meadows a year earlier.
#2. $23.8 million
Sport: Tennis | Nationality: Poland | Age: 23 | On-Field: $8.8 million • Off-Field: $15 million
Świątek led the 2023 female athletes ranking with an estimated $23.9 million, and she finishes this year within $100,000 of that total, with Lancôme and Lego joining her robust sponsor portfolio. But the 23-year-old also experienced turbulence, splitting with her coach and losing the No. 1 singles ranking after 50 straight weeks in the top spot. Most notably, news broke in November that she had tested positive for a banned substance three months earlier. However, the International Tennis Integrity Agency ruled that the result was unintentional—caused by contamination of melatonin she was taking for sleeping issues—and issued her only a one-month suspension.
#3. $22.1 million
Sport: Freestyle skiing | Nationality: China | Age: 21 | On-Field: $0.1 million • Off-Field: $22 million
Gu has lucrative endorsement deals with Western brands including Louis Vuitton, Tiffany & Co. and new addition Porsche as well as Chinese brands such as Anta sportswear, Bosideng jackets and Mengniu Dairy. With her 16th World Cup victory this month, she moved back into a tie for the career freeskiing lead, but some Chinese social media users have accused Gu, who was born in San Francisco and represents her mother’s native China in competition, of being “unpatriotic” and “two-faced.” “In the past five years, I’ve represented China in 41 international competitions and have won 39 medals for China,” Gu shot back in a post on short-video app Douyin. “What have you done for the country?”
#4. $20.6 million
Sport: Tennis | Nationality: China | Age: 22 | On-Field: $5.6 million • Off-Field: $15 million
In the past two years, Zheng had won the WTA Tour’s Newcomer of the Year and Most Improved Player Awards, but she raised her game in 2024, reaching the Australian Open final and winning gold in singles at the Paris Olympics. The success has made her a huge star in her native China, with Audi, milk tea chain Chagee, Lancôme and phone maker Vivo among the brands signing her as an ambassador. Her quick rise has already prompted comparisons to her countrywoman Li Na, who won two majors and appeared in the top 10 of the female athletes earnings ranking from 2011 to 2014.
#5. $18.7 million
Sport: Tennis | Nationality: Belarus | Age: 26 | On-Field: $9.7 million • Off-Field: $9 million
Sabalenka jumped ahead of her rival Iga Świątek to capture tennis’ No. 1 ranking and claimed the WTA Player of the Year Award after winning the Australian Open and the U.S. Open, along with two other tournaments. She also led the tour with $9.7 million in prize money, edging out Coco Gauff’s $9.4 million. Off the court, she picked up endorsement deals with Audemars Piguet watches, Master & Dynamic headphones and açaí bowl chain Oakberry.
#6 (tie). $12.9 million
Sport: Tennis | Nationality: Japan | Age: 27 | On-Field: $0.9 million • Off-Field: $12 million
Osaka returned to the court on the first day of the year after missing all of 2023 as she gave birth to her first child. It wasn’t easy for the four-time major champion, who wrote in a powerful Instagram post in August, “My biggest issue is that I don’t feel like I’m in my body.” But she managed to play in 19 events after struggling with injuries in recent years and pushed her singles ranking back up to No. 58, from a low of No. 833 during her layoff. Osaka also still has more than a dozen sponsors in her stable and is a cofounder of production company Hana Kuma, which is working with golf’s LPGA Tour to create campaigns around its athletes and is developing an anime series that will include Osaka as a voice actor.
#6 (tie). $12.9 million
Sport: Tennis | Nationality: U.K. | Age: 22 | On-Field: $0.9 million • Off-Field: $12 million
Raducanu still has a slew of lucrative partnerships she signed in the wake of her victory as an 18-year-old at the 2021 U.S. Open, with brands including British Airways, Dior and HSBC, but she has been plagued by injuries, illnesses and inconsistency in the years since her breakout. The world’s 57th-ranked player heads into 2025 with a new fitness coach—the well-regarded Yutaka Nakamura, who previously worked with Maria Sharapova and Naomi Osaka—as she remains on the hunt for her second career WTA tournament win.
#8. $12.5 million
Sport: Golf | Nationality: U.S. | Age: 26 | On-Field: $4.5 million • Off-Field: $8 million
Korda tied an LPGA Tour record this year with five straight tournament victories and, despite a neck injury, finished 2024 with seven titles, the tour’s best total since 2011. Her $4.4 million in LPGA prize money also surpassed the tour record—although she herself was topped this year by Jeeno Thitikul’s $6.1 million—and she won the LPGA’s Player of the Year Award to go with the No. 1 ranking. Away from the course, Korda added Tumi to the best sponsorship portfolio in women’s golf.
#9. $12.1 million
Sport: Tennis | Nationality: U.S. | Age: 44 | On-Field: $0.1 million • Off-Field: $12 million
Williams played just two competitive events this year—each a first-round loss—as she winds down a legendary career that has included seven Grand Slam singles titles. But while endorsement deals tend to revolve around tennis players’ rankings, the 44-year-old is not your average No. 977 player. She is active on the speaking circuit, making six figures per engagement, and she stays busy as an ambassador and entrepreneur. Palazzo, an AI-powered interior design platform, is among her latest projects, and she was the model for a one-of-a-kind Barbie doll created as part of the toy’s 65th anniversary celebration.
#10. $11.2 million
Sport: Gymnastics | Nationality: U.S. | Age: 27 | On-Field: $0.2 million • Off-Field: $11 million
After a case of “the twisties” knocked her out of Olympic competition in Tokyo in 2021, Biles made a triumphant return to the Summer Games this year, winning three gold medals and a silver in Paris. Her comeback was chronicled in the Netflix docuseries Simone Biles Rising, and she took a victory lap with a series of exhibitions called the Gold Over America Tour—or GOAT, in recognition of her now-unquestioned status as gymnastics’ greatest of all-time.
#11. $10.2 million
Sport: Tennis | Nationality: U.S. | Age: 30 | On-Field: $4.2 million • Off-Field: $6 million
Pegula won two tournaments this year, in Berlin and Toronto, but two losses in New York also qualified as highlights. At the U.S. Open in September, she advanced past the quarterfinals at a Grand Slam for the first time, eventually falling to Aryna Sabalenka in the final. And this month, she faced rising American star Emma Navarro in an exhibition at Madison Square Garden in front of a crowd of more than 19,000. “The New York crowds are just different,” she told the New York Post ahead of that match.
#12. $9.3 million
Sport: Golf | Nationality: Thailand | Age: 21 | On-Field: $7.3 million • Off-Field: $2 million
Thitikul earned a $1 million bonus for winning the Aon Risk Reward Challenge, a season-long competition on the LPGA Tour, and she claimed the biggest victory of her young career at the CME Group Tour Championship in November. The 21-year-old already had a long and impressive résumé, however. At 14, she was the youngest golfer ever to win a Ladies European Tour event, at a 2017 tournament in her native Thailand, and she reached No. 1 in the world rankings as a 19-year-old LPGA rookie in 2022.
#13. $8.1 million
Sport: Basketball | Nationality: U.S. | Age: 22 | On-Field: $0.1 million • Off-Field: $8 million
Clark, recently honored as a member of Forbes’ 30 Under 30 and 100 Most Powerful Women lists, went from a record-breaking college star to a record-breaking WNBA rookie with the Indiana Fever in 2024, setting the league’s single-season mark for assists. Her growing list of partners includes Nike, State Farm and Wilson Sporting Goods, and she appeared in the ESPN+ docuseries Full Court Press during her senior season at the University of Iowa.
#14. $8 million
Sport: Tennis | Nationality: Italy | Age: 28 | On-Field: $6.5 million • Off-Field: $1.5 million
Paolini was one-half of the WTA Tour’s doubles team of the year, alongside Sara Errani, after they reached the French Open final and won Olympic gold. But the late-blooming 28-year-old was just as successful in singles, finishing as the runner-up at Roland-Garros and Wimbledon, rising to No. 4 in the year-end rankings and leading Italy to the Billie Jean King Cup title. She has momentum off the court as well, recently partnering with Intesa Sanpaolo and Italgas.
#15. $7.9 million
Sport: Tennis | Nationality: Kazakhstan | Age: 25 | On-Field: $3.9 million • Off-Field: $4 million
Rybakina had to pull out of two Wimbledon warm-up tournaments, the Paris Olympics and the U.S. Open because of illnesses and injuries, and she missed the WTA Tour’s entire Asian swing in the fall. But the 25-year-old, who was born in Russia and represents Kazakhstan, returned for the WTA Finals and scored a round-robin victory over No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka. Rybakina has now won six of her last eight matches against top-ranked players.
#16. $7.6 million
Sport: Soccer | Nationality: U.S. | Age: 35 | On-Field: $0.6 million • Off-Field: $7 million
Days after revealing that she was pregnant with her second child, Morgan retired from professional soccer, playing 13 minutes in her final game with San Diego Wave FC in September. She ends her career with two World Cup titles and an Olympic gold medal and ranks fifth in U.S. women’s national team history with 123 goals. Also a prolific pitchwoman and investor, Morgan acquired stakes this year in Unrivaled, the forthcoming women’s pro basketball league, and Classic Football Shirts, which sells vintage soccer jerseys.
#17. $7.1 million
Sport: Badminton | Nationality: India | Age: 29 | On-Field: $0.1 million • Off-Field: $7 million
Sindhu’s name recognition may be lacking in the U.S., but she is a huge marketing star in her native India and is making her sixth appearance on Forbes’ female athlete earnings ranking. A two-time Olympic medalist and the 2019 badminton world champion, Sindhu led the Indian women to their first title at the Badminton Asia Team Championships in February and served as her country’s co-flag bearer at the Paris Summer Games’ opening ceremony, although she was ousted from the tournament in the round of 16.
#18. $6.5 million
Sport: Tennis | Nationality: Canada | Age: 22 | On-Field: $1.5 million • Off-Field: $5 million
Fernandez is No. 31 in women’s singles, which represents her best year-end ranking since 2021, when she unexpectedly reached the U.S. Open final against Emma Raducanu. In August, the 22-year-old Canadian beat Elena Rybakina in the second round at the Cincinnati Open, her first victory over a top-five player since her magical run in Flushing Meadows saw her knock off Naomi Osaka, Elina Svitolina and Aryna Sabalenka. Off the court, Fernandez remains a star in Canada with more than a dozen long-term partners, signing this year with enterprise software company SAP and Folgers Coffee.
#19 (tie). $6.3 million
Sport: Basketball | Nationality: U.S. | Age: 27 | On-Field: $0.3 million • Off-Field: $6 million
After falling two games short of a WNBA championship in 2023, Ionescu got her ring this year with the New York Liberty, following a gold-medal performance with Team USA at the Paris Olympics. She also nearly pulled off an upset win over Golden State Warriors superstar Stephen Curry in a 3-point contest during the NBA’s All-Star Weekend in February. That isn’t Ionescu’s first time crossing over to the men’s game: Her signature shoe from Nike has been worn by NBA players including the Boston Celtics’ Jrue Holiday, the New York Knicks’ Jalen Brunson and the Indiana Pacers’ Tyrese Haliburton.
#19 (tie). $6.3 million
Sport: Golf | Nationality: New Zealand | Age: 27 | On-Field: $3.3 million • Off-Field: $3 million
In January, Ko claimed her first LPGA Tour title since 2022, and she followed it up with two more, including the Women’s British Open. She now ranks fourth on the LPGA’s career official prize money list with $20,143,981, and with another year like this one, she will pass Annika Sorenstam ($22,583,693) for the tour record. Ko also won the women’s golf tournament at the Paris Games, giving her a complete set of Olympic medals—gold, silver (from 2016) and bronze (2021).
METHODOLOGY
The Forbes ranking of the world’s highest-paid female athletes reflects earnings from the calendar year 2024. The on-field earnings figures include base salaries, bonuses, stipends and prize money and are rounded to the nearest $100,000. The off-field earnings estimates, which are rounded to the nearest $500,000, are determined through conversations with industry insiders and reflect annual cash from endorsements, licensing, appearances and memorabilia, as well as cash returns from any businesses in which the athlete has a significant interest. Forbes does not include investment income like interest payments or dividends but does account for payouts from equity stakes athletes have sold. Forbes does not deduct for taxes or agents’ fees. The list includes athletes active at any point during the 12-month period.
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