How US Sports Leagues Make Money
Between 2022 and 2023, the five major U.S. sports leagues collectively earned $49.3 billion.
The NFL generated the highest revenue, at $18.7 billion, significantly outpacing both the NBA and MLB, which each brought in $10.9 billion. Although the main sources of league revenues have largely remained unchanged over the last four decades, there are distinct variations in the revenue breakdown of each sport.
This graphic, via Visual Capitalist's Niccolo Conte, breaks down U.S. sports leagues by revenue stream, based on data from Sportico.
Breaking Down U.S. Sports League Revenues
Below, we show how each major league generates revenue based on their primary sources of revenue. Revenue for the NFL and MLB is as of 2022, revenue for the NBA and NHL is for the 2022-2023 season, and revenue for the MLS is as of 2023.
Central revenue includes league media, merchandise, other sponsorships, and shared ticket revenue.
As we can see, central revenue, which largely consists of media and broadcast deals, is the most important revenue source for the NFL and NBA.
Since 2018, the NFL has grown from 61 of the top 100 most watched TV broadcasts to 93 in 2023. Adding to this, streaming platforms are increasingly signing contracts with the NFL, including Netflix paying $150 million to stream two 2024 Christmas games and Amazon paying $1 billion to stream Thursday night games exclusively on digital.
Additionally, the NBA recently signed an 11-year $76 billion deal with ESPN, Amazon, and NBC that is worth more than double its previous contract. Moreover, this trend of significantly increasing media deal values is seen across every major league amid high consumer demand for professional sports.
For the MLB, local media is a vital source of revenue, with nearly a quarter of revenues coming from this source—more than any other sport by far. In fact, each day an average 2.3 million viewers watch MLB games on regional sports networks.
Meanwhile, the NHL makes the highest share of revenue from seating and suite sales compared to major sports leagues, at 44%, due to it attracting less lucrative TV contracts.