This pair of graphs visualizes the distribution of earnings among the five highest-paid athletes by sport. The earnings are broken down into salary/winnings and endorsements. The lower graph bins the earnings of the top five athletes from each sport, showing which sports have the highest income based on top salaries, as well as which sports are most heavily invested in by endorsers.

Fun facts:

The two biggest earners are Tiger Woods (golf) and Roger Federer (tennis). Both make the vast majority of their money from endorsements, which is not surprising, as tennis and golf are not salaried sports – earnings based on performance come from success in tournaments.

Tennis is the only sport that has women listed in the top five (Maria Sharapova and Serena Williams).

Golf has the largest range, with both the highest and lowest earner.

All five football players are quarterbacks.

Four of the five baseball players earned within $200,000 of each other.

The highest endorsement to salary/winnings ratios were Federer (10), Mickelson (9.4) and Beckham (8.1). With the exception of Flacco (fottball), the five lowest ratios were all baseball players (Hernandez, Rodriguez, Santana, and Mauer).

Proportionally, baseball and football have the least income from endorsements; tennis and golf have the most.

The summation shows that the top football players have the highest salaries, but when including endorsements, the basketball players are the top earners. Tennis players earn the least in terms of salary/winnings, but baseball players earn the least when including endorsements.

Data source: http://www.forbes.com/athletes/list/