All 32 NFL teams are worth at least $5 billion. Cowboys lead the way at 13 billion

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For the 19th straight year, Dallas is the NFL’s most valuable team, worth $13 billion, according to Forbes estimates—up 29% from 2024 and double its valuation from just four years ago. And the Cowboys have new company in the $10 billion club, with the Los Angeles Rams now worth $10.5 billion and the New York Giants close behind at $10.1 billion.

All 32 NFL teams are worth at least $5 billion for the first time, with the Cincinnati Bengals setting the floor at $5.25 billion—a figure that surpasses all 32 NHL clubs in Forbes’ ranking last year and all but seven franchises across the most recent NBA and MLB valuation lists. The average team value in the NFL now sits at $7.1 billion, a 25% increase over 2024 and a 104% jump from 2021, and league-wide revenue climbed to an estimated $21.2 billion during the 2024 season, rising 74% over the same four-year period.

The Cowboys, however, are in a league of their own with estimated 2024 revenue of $1.2 billion, leading every other NFL team by at least $400 million. In fact, remove the roughly $440 million that every club received from the league office—from national media, sponsorship and merchandise, as well as a pooled portion of league-wide ticket revenue—and Dallas still collected nearly $800 million in purely local revenue, more than the total revenue of every other team except the Las Vegas Raiders.

Even more astonishing, the Cowboys posted operating income of $629 million last season, according to Forbes estimates, meaning Dallas made more in profit than 16 teams logged in revenue.

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The lure of NFL ownership starts with the league’s national media deals, which took effect in 2022 and 2023 and locked in $125.5 billion in revenue over the next decade. But many around the sport expect that number to end up considerably higher because the league can opt out of most of its agreements in 2029 and secure even better rates, capitalizing on the success the NBA had negotiating an 11-year, $76 billion package with Amazon, ESPN and NBC last year. The NFL also moved this month to acquire a 10% stake in ESPN in exchange for the NFL Network and other media assets, including the TV rights to the RedZone channel.

Meanwhile, the NFL continues to increase its marketing revenue, approaching $2.5 billion in team sponsorships last season in a 6% rise from the previous year, according to research firm SponsorUnited. And football has plenty of room to grow internationally, where the NFL’s broadcast rights are negligible and teams have only recently started to devote real resources as part of the league’s global markets program.

One other clear perk of NFL ownership is that it has become nearly impossible to lose money in the league, with the 32 teams averaging $127 million in operating income last season and no team falling below $21 million, according to Forbes estimates. That kind of profitability isn’t guaranteed in other sports, such as MLB, where Forbes estimates that 11 teams were in the red last season.

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#1. $13 billion
Dallas Cowboys

One-Year Change: 29% | Revenue: $1.234 billion | Operating Income: $629 million | Owner: Jerry Jones

#2. $10.5 billion
Los Angeles Rams

One-Year Change: 38% | Revenue: $764 million | Operating Income: $244 million | Owner: E. Stanley Kroenke

3. $10.1 billion
New York Giants

One-Year Change: 38% | Revenue: $707 million | Operating Income: $181 million | Owners: John Mara, Steven Tisch

#4. $9 billion
New England Patriots

One-Year Change: 22% | Revenue: $762 million | Operating Income: $222 million | Owner: Robert Kraft

#5. $8.6 billion
San Francisco 49ers

One-Year Change: 26% | Revenue: $723 million | Operating Income: $115 million | Owner: York family

#6. $8.3 billion
Philadelphia Eagles

One-Year Change: 26% | Revenue: $688 million | Operating Income: $117 million | Owner: Jeffrey Lurie

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