The NFL season kicks off this year with teams in all but a handful of franchises seeing a path to the playoffs. Add in the allure of gambling and fantasy football, and it’s no wonder that football is Americans’ favorite sport to watch at 31%, roughly three times basketball (11%), baseball (10%) and soccer (9%), per Gallup’s latest survey.
All those eyeballs mean money—lots and lots of money.
The Premier League has the biggest global reach of any sports league, and MLB’s origins date back 150 years, but the NFL is the undisputed king at making a buck.
The NFL’s 32 teams generated an estimated $23.5 billion last year, up 6% from 2024, and total NFL revenue topped $24 billion, as some revenue stays at the league level. It is well ahead of the pace needed to meet commissioner Roger Goodell’s 2010 revenue target of $25 billion by 2027—which raised eyebrows at the time, when league revenues were $8 billion.
The 2025 tally is 79% higher than MLB—the gap was 29% 20 years ago. The Premier League only has 20 teams, but its $9.2 billion for the 2024-25 season is more akin to the NHL ($7.7 billion) than American football. NBA teams made an estimated $12.25 billion during the 2024-25 season, ahead of the league’s new 11-year, $76 billion media deal kicking off.
