Every major sports league rakes in an eye-opening amount of money, there’s no denying that. But when it comes to American entities, the NFL is king.
We have seen that play out more so than ever before throughout the past decade, with viewership numbers skyrocketing and dwarfing the NBA, MLB and NHL. And when it comes to revenue, it’s not even close. The 2023 season was no exception; in fact, the gap continues to grow wider between the NFL and every other league.
According to Kurt Badenhausen of Sportico, the NFL hit an insane $13 billion national revenue number in 2023. The football franchises themselves got an average payout of $404 million from the league office. Last year, that number was $374 million.
That means the NFL continues to generate a whopping amount of money. And that’s just the revenue being paid out to teams. Estimates have the league’s total revenue at close to $20 billion for last season. In 2022, the total revenue was $18.6 billion.
With the salary cap going up every single year, the NFL is simply a well-oiled machine with no stopping in sight. With TV rights deals, sports betting and daily fantasy sports, as well as partnerships with major brands that have spanned decades, the league will only get bigger.
