Basketball sensation Caitlin Clark is turning heads once again.
And not for anything she’s doing on the baskeball court.
The former phenom for the Iowa Hawkeyes and first overall pick in the 2024 WNBA Draft by the Indiana Fever was plagued by injuries most of the 2025 WNBA season.
But that didn’t stop Clark from cashing in and becoming of of the world’s top paid athletes.
Sports publication Sportico released a stunning report this week detailing Clark’s 2025 earnings — and they are nothing short of massive.
According to the numbers cited in the report, Clark earned roughly $16.1 million for the year, and nearly none of it came from playing for the Fever.
For context, earning more than $16 million in a single year is what really solid players in the four major pro sports leagues make in contract money and ad deals.
But where did all the extra money come from?
Sportico reported her WNBA salary and bonuses amounted to just $114,000 of her 2025 earnings. Her WNBA salary for the year before potential bonuses was just $78,066.
This means that more 99% of Clark’s reported earnings for the year came off the court.
Sportico repoted that Clark’s massive windfall is due to her array of sponsorship deals with Nike, Gatorade, State Farm, Wilson, Panini America, Hy-Vee and others.
Clark has clearly separated herself from both a basketball and marketing perspective as Sportico didn’t have another basketball player among the highest earning female athletes in the world.
While quickly becoming the WNBA’s highest earner, Clark has maintained her position that WNBA players as a whole are massively underpaid.
Clark has spoken out about WNBA pay, taking a jab at the WNBA’s current pay structure after her team won WNBA Commissioner’s Cup in July, directly addressed WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert to shed light on the discrepancy in pay.
“We get more for this (WNBA Commissioner’s Cup) than you do if you’re a (WNBA) champion,” Clark said.
“Makes no sense. Someone tell Cathy [Engelbert] to help us out.”
The WNBA is in the midst of negotiating a new collective bargaining agreement, and both the league and players union agree that salaries are headed up multiple times their current level to catch up to soaring revenue and franchise valuations.
The structure of a final CBA is still a work in progress.
In the meantime, Clark continues to rake-in her much-earned money.