2025’s top female athlete $20.6M behind Top 50 overall

Forbes has released its 2025 list of the world’s highest-paid female athletes, based on earnings over the past 12 months—and once again, women’s tennis dominates the Top 20. American Coco Gauff leads the group for the second consecutive year, thanks largely to her impressive endorsement portfolio. Year 2025 also belonged to Elena Rybakina, whose WTA Finals triumph in Riyadh earned her the largest single-event prize in women’s tennis history: a $5.235 million payday. Despite these record-breaking earnings, male athletes still outpace women by a wide margin.

Total earnings of Top 20 female athletes in the past 12 months were $293 million, a 13% increase from 2024, while the cutoff to make the Top 20 rose to $8.1 million, up from $6.3 million a year earlier. Tennis continues to lead the way with ten representatives, though that’s down from 11 and 12 in the previous two years—and a far cry from 2019, when the entire Top 11 came from the sport.

Below is the list of the highest-paid female athletes in 2025, with tennis players highlighted in bold. Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus tops on-court earnings, unsurprising given her position as the No. 1 player throughout the season, while Gauff leads off-court earnings with $25 million, followed closely by China’s Zheng Qinwen at $23 million.

Highest-paid female athletes 2025:

1. Coco Gauff $33 million (on-court $8 million, off-court $25 million)2. Aryna Sabalenka $30 million (on-court $15 million, off-court $15 million)3. Iga Swiatek $25.1 million (on-court $10.1 million, off-court $15 million)4. Eileen Gu $23.1 million (on-court $0.1 million, off-court $23 million) – freestyle skiing5. Zheng Qinwen $22.6 million (on-court $1.6 million, off-court $21 million)6. Madison Keys $13.4 million (on-court $4.4 million, off-court $9 million)7. Nelly Korda $13 million (on-court $3 million, off-court $10 million) – golf8. (tie) Naomi Osaka $12.5 million (on-court $2.5 million, off-court $10 million)8. (tie) Elena Rybakina $12.5 million (on-court $8.5 million, off-court $4 million)10. Jessica Pegula $12.3 million (on-court $5.3 million, off-court $7 million)11. Caitlin Clark $12.1 million (on-court $0.1 million, off-court $12 million) – basketball12. Amanda Anisimova $11.3 million (on-court $7.3 million, off-court $4 million) 13. Sabrina Ionescu $10.5 million (on-court $0.5 million, off-court $10 million) – basketball14. Jeeno Thitikul $10.3 million (on-court $8.3 million, off-court $2 million) – golf15. Angel Reese $9.4 million (on-court $0.4 million, off-court $9 million) – basketball16. Paige Bueckers $9.1 million (on-court $0.1 million, off-court $9 million) – basketball17. Jasmine Paolini $8.3 million (on-court $5.3 million, off-court $3 million) 18. (tie) Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone $8.2 million (on-court $0.2 million, off-court $8 million) – track and field18. (tie) Lindsey Vonn $8.2 million (on-court $0.2 million, off-court $8 million) – skiing20. Ilona Maher $8.1 million (on-court $0.1 million, off-court $8 million) – rugby

Highest-paid women too far from Forbes’ Top 50 athletes

Despite the growing momentum across women’s sports, the highest-earning female athletes still have a long way to go to match their male counterparts. No woman has made Forbes’ annual list of the 50 highest-paid athletes overall since 2023, and this year the cutoff for that ranking jumped to a staggering $53.6 million—over $20 million more than Gauff’s total. Meanwhile, the combined earnings of the Top 20 men on that list exceeded $2.3 billion, roughly eight times the cumulative total of this year’s top women.

In tennis, the four Grand Slam tournaments have awarded equal prize money to men and women since 2007, but smaller events often lag behind. In a historic move, the Charleston Open—voted the best WTA 500 tournament by players in 2025—announced it will voluntarily equalize its prize pool starting in 2026, the first WTA 500 event to do so.