Who are the most marketable athletes in the world right now?

Question

Accepted Answer

Asked which athletes are the most marketable in the world right now, the four AI models Bowstone tracks named Lionel Messi most often — in 4 of 4 answers for the week of Sep 19, 2026. Twelve athletes were named in total.
This tracks visibility in AI answers, not endorsement earnings or commercial value.

Ranked by how many of Claude, GPT-4o, Gemini and Perplexity named each athlete:
1. Lionel Messi — Models naming it: 4 of 4, Avg. position: 2.3, BX Overall: 65.0
2. LeBron James — Models naming it: 4 of 4, Avg. position: 2.8, BX Overall: 65.2
3. Caitlin Clark — Models naming it: 3 of 4, Avg. position: 4.5, BX Overall: 45.4
4. Patrick Mahomes — Models naming it: 3 of 4, Avg. position: 7.0, BX Overall: 63.5
5. Naomi Osaka — Models naming it: 2 of 4, Avg. position: 5.5, BX Overall: 27.0
6. Stephen Curry — Models naming it: 2 of 4, Avg. position: 5.5, BX Overall: 65.7
7. Coco Gauff — Models naming it: 2 of 4, Avg. position: 6.0, BX Overall: 24.0
8. Giannis Antetokounmpo — Models naming it: 2 of 4, Avg. position: —, BX Overall: 30.6
9. Shohei Ohtani — Models naming it: 1 of 4, Avg. position: 3.0, BX Overall: 34.1
10. Victor Wembanyama — Models naming it: 1 of 4, Avg. position: 6.0, BX Overall: 22.9
11. Carlos Alcaraz — Models naming it: 1 of 4, Avg. position: 12.0, BX Overall: 18.9
12. Simone Biles — Models naming it: 1 of 4, Avg. position: —, BX Overall: 20.0

Ranked by how many of the four tracked AI models named each athlete in their answer to this exact question, then by the average position each gave it. Bowstone asks this question of Claude, GPT-4o, Gemini and Perplexity every week and records every entity named. This is a measure of what the models say, not a ranking of commercial value.

Which athletes do AI models say are the most marketable?

How this was measured

Every tracked week

#	Name	Models naming it	Avg. position	BX Overall
1	Lionel Messi	4 of 4	2.3	65.0
2	LeBron James	4 of 4	2.8	65.2
3	Caitlin Clark	3 of 4	4.5	45.4
4	Patrick Mahomes	3 of 4	7.0	63.5
5	Naomi Osaka	2 of 4	5.5	27.0
6	Stephen Curry	2 of 4	5.5	65.7
7	Coco Gauff	2 of 4	6.0	24.0
8	Giannis Antetokounmpo	2 of 4	—	30.6
9	Shohei Ohtani	1 of 4	3.0	34.1
10	Victor Wembanyama	1 of 4	6.0	22.9
11	Carlos Alcaraz	1 of 4	12.0	18.9
12	Simone Biles	1 of 4	—	20.0