Caitlin Clark’s 2025 Earnings Called Into Question After Conflicting Rankings

Several prominent sites are at odds over how much money Caitlin Clark made in 2025.

Aug 31, 2025; San Francisco, California, USA; Indiana Fever guard Caitlin Clark (22) before the game against the Golden State Valkyries at Chase Center. Mandatory Credit: Darren Yamashita-Imagn Images | Darren Yamashita-Imagn Images

It's no secret that Indiana Fever star Caitlin Clark is on a league of her own when it comes to stardom in women's basketball.

No. 22 has generated a massive fan base during her basketball journey, starting in her historic college career with the University of Iowa Hawkeyes and continuing through her first two WNBA seasons with the Indiana Fever. While an athlete typically needs to perform on the court for their star to keep rising, the fact that Clark only played in 13 games in 2025 because of various injuries didn't seem to have much of an impact on her global acclaim.

Oct 5, 2025; Indianapolis, Indiana, USA; Caitlin Clark looks on from the sideline during warmups before the game between the Las Vegas Raiders and the Indianapolis Colts at Lucas Oil Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Trevor Ruszkowski-Imagn Images | Trevor Ruszkowski-Imagn Images

This was proven by the fact that she saw a $5 million earnings increase in 2025 compared to the year prior, according to Sportico's list of the Highest-Paid Female Athletes, which was released on December 3.

In that article, Clark reportedly earned $16.1 million total in 2025, including $16 million in endorsements and about $114,000 in WNBA earnings and winnings (her annual salary, along with any bonuses, such as the Fever winning the 2025 WNBA Commissioner's Cup).

10 of the 15 highest paid female athletes in 2025 are tennis players.

Via @Sportico pic.twitter.com/z1lQzzFhXP

— José Morgado (@josemorgado) December 3, 2025

Forbes Highest-Paid Athletes List Disputes Caitlin Clark's Earnings

While there's no question that Clark is the highest-paid women's basketball player in the world right now, just how much she earned in 2025 seems to be unclear. This is owed to Forbes' ranking of the world’s highest-paid female athletes in 2025, which came out on December 17 and said that Clark earned $12.1 million in 2025, including $12 million in off-court endeavors and $100,000 from the WNBA.

There was clearly some discrepancy between how these two reputable sites came to these earnings results, as many of the athletes included on each list had different earnings totals.

It's also worth noting that the Forbes list included WNBA stars Sabrina Ionescu ($10.5 million), Angel Reese ($9.4 million), and Paige Bueckers ($9.1 million), even though none of these three were included on the Sportico list.

The World’s Highest Paid Female Athletes in the WNBA per @Forbes

Caitlin Clark- $12.1 million
Sabrina Ionescu- $10.5 million
Angel Reese- $9.4 million
Paige Bueckers - $9.1 million pic.twitter.com/39g0I4cEVn

— Athlete Vanity (@AthleteVanity) December 16, 2025

It's highly unlikely that the people who put these two lists together had access to exactly how much each woman made in 2025, and they were instead using an estimate. However, if that was the case, it would have been nice for the articles to disclose that at some point.

And even if these are estimates, the fact that they're $4 million off for Clark is a pretty wide gap. Regardless, it will be interesting to see where Clark lands on each site's respective rankings in 2026.