19 AFL players are said to have earned upwards of $1 million for their services throughout the course of the 2023 season.
The new record figure has eclipsed the marker set in 2022 of 12, with the Total Player Payments (TPP) bar moving by more than 58 per cent between campaigns.
Nearly a full football team's worth of talent earned seven-figure salaries last season, thanks in large part to the new Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) inked in September of 2023.
Of the 19 players that made up the league's millionaires club last season, eight were said to have earned more than $1.2 million for services rendered, while a further five collected between $1.1 million and $1.2 million and the remaining six agreed to deals that saw them net between $1.0 and $1.1 million.
Although a crystal-clear rank of players has not been made public, AFL Media have pressed that the following players appeared odds on to have earned six figures or more, including Dustin Martin, Nat Fyfe, Jeremy McGovern, Brodie Grundy, Marcus Bontempelli, Toby Greene, Stephen Coniglio, Jeremy Cameron, Tim Kelly, Lachie Neale, Josh Kelly, Christian Petracca, Patrick Cripps, Clayton Oliver and reigning premiership captain Darcy Moore.
As stated within the full TPP document, the average AFL player earned $441,464 for the 2023 season, an 11 per cent increase from the previous year's mean of $406,105.
Gross player payments reached $280.9 million, up from $257.6 million the previous season.
| Earnings | 2023 | 2023 |
| Played | Listed | |
| $0 - $60,000 | 0 | 0 |
| $60,001 - $100,000 | 0 | 0 |
| $100,001 - $200,000 | 64 | 128 |
| $200,001 - $300,000 | 97 | 106 |
| $300,001 - $400,000 | 93 | 96 |
| $400,001 - $500,000 | 89 | 91 |
| $500,001 - $600,000 | 76 | 80 |
| $600,001 - $700,000 | 53 | 54 |
| $700,001 - $800,000 | 41 | 42 |
| $800,001 - $900,000 | 28 | 29 |
| $900,001 - $1,000,000 | 15 | 15 |
| $1,000,001 - $1,100,000 | 6 | 6 |
| $1,100,001 - $1,200,000 | 5 | 5 |
| $1,200,001 + | 8 | 8 |
| TOTAL | 575 | 660 |