Shohei Ohtani at bat for the Los Angeles Dodgers

(John McCoy/Getty Images)

Run home!

Shohei Ohtani will make 98% of his $102 million earnings off the field this season

Unlike his peers, the MLB star will earn the vast majority of his money through lucrative sponsorship deals.

3/26/25 10:19AM

Look, it’s been clear for quite some time that Shohei Ohtani is a serious outlier in the world of Major League Baseball. Whether it was becoming the first player to join the 50/50 club or posting some of the best single-day, single-month, and single-season stats in history, his GOAT status is becoming more difficult to argue against with each year that passes.

As one of the highest-earning stars in the MLB, even the way he makes his money sets him apart in rarefied air, per Forbes’ latest annual list of the sport’s top-paid stars.

Out of the park

Due to the unusual way his $700 million, 10-year contract with the Dodgers is structured — Ohtani receives $20 million across the 10 seasons, then $68 million each year for the decade after that — the two-way player will make just $2 million in on-field earnings this year. Meanwhile, Forbes estimates that he’ll score $100 million from over 20 sponsors like New Balance, Beats by Dre, Seiko watches, and a host of other mostly American and Japanese brands.

For context, Juan Soto, the only player who will outearn Ohtani this season, will get 96% of his cash from his staggering $46.9 million annual salary and $75 million signing bonus this season, after inking a record-breaking (and non-deferring) $765 million, 15-year deal with the Mets in December.

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Paramount and Microsoft’s Activision agree to partner on a “Call of Duty” movie

Less than a month after forming, Paramount Skydance has landed another major piece of intellectual property. The studio said it’s signed a deal with Microsoft’s Activision to create a live-action “Call of Duty” film.

The competitive shooter is one of the most popular gaming franchises in the world and has been the US’s bestselling series for the past 16 years. The next title in the 22-year-old franchise, “Black Ops 7,” will debut in November.

Paramount, which closed its merger with Skydance in August, has had a summer of big deals. It acquired UFC broadcast rights in a $7.7 billion deal with TKO last month, following a $1.5 billion deal for “South Park” rights in July. The company also lured “Stranger Things” creators away from Netflix last month for a four-year film and TV development deal.

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“Blinding Lights” just officially hit 5 billion streams on Spotify

Over the weekend, The Weeknd’s biggest hit crossed over the impressive threshold, with Spotify marking the feat with an Instagram post that the artist shared to his story.

According to Spotify data collated by Kworb, the song now has a staggering 5,000,010,581 streams on the platform, and is racking up nearly 1.5 million streams each day at the time of writing.

Blinding Lights crosses 5 billion chart — Sherwood News

While Ed Sheeran’s “Shape of You,” released about two years before “Blinding Lights,” looks like it’ll be the next song to hit the 5 billion boundary, “Starboy,” another song from The Weeknd, might not be too far behind.

Besides those two megahits, The Weeknd has 26 other songs that have been streamed more than 1 billion times on Spotify — more than any other artist on the platform.

The Weeknd’s “Blinding Lights” is about to hit 5 billion streams on Spotify