Taylor Swift Is The World’s Top-Earning Celebrity In 2016

Taylor Swift Is The World’s Top-Earning Celebrity In 2016

Taylor Swift’s income is the stuff of wildest dreams: the pop diva pulled in $170 million over the past year, giving her the No. 1 spot on the 2016 FORBES Celebrity 100 list.

Swift’s payday comes courtesy of her massive 1989 World Tour. She smashed the Rolling Stones’ North American touring record, grossing $200 million on the continent en route to quarter of a billion dollars in total. She also pads her pocketbook by shilling for brands including Diet Coke, Keds and Apple.

The superstar’s total is barely half as high as last year’s Celeb 100 champ’s haul–Floyd Mayweather pulled in $300 million in 2015 after the fight of the century with Manny Pacquiao–but it’s easily more than last year’s highest-paid musician, Katy Perry, who banked $135 million.

Swift’s 2016 take is by far the highest total of her career, more than doubling last year’s $80 million sum, her previous best.

She’s also got plenty of new song fodder: Swift out-earned ex-boyfriend Calvin Harris, who claimed the No. 21 spot on our list with $63 million, by a nearly threefold margin. Had they stayed together, they would have been the top-earning Celebrity 100 couple, more than doubling Beyoncé and Jay Z’s $107.5 million total.

Fellow road warriors One Direction claim the second spot on the list with earnings of $110 million. The top-earning boy band of all time may be on hiatus, but the tail end of last year’s $200 million-plus On The Road Again tour kept their earnings higher than any active band—despite the departure of Zayn Malik from the group in March 2015. Author James Patterson pulled in $95 million to snag the No. 3 spot, while soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo and personality Dr. Phil McGraw round out the top five with $88 million apiece.

“Before I take the first step, I know where I’m trying to get in the end,” McGraw once told FORBES. “And so I’ve always had a plan and everything is very goal oriented.”

Also on the list are British songstress Adele (No. 9, $80.5 million), the only musician on the list who made more than half her money from music; Chinese actor Jackie Chan (No. 21, $61 million), whose mainland movies make him the world’s second-highest-paid actor; South Korean boy band Bigbang (No. 54, $44 million), the top earning K-Pop act of all time; and Brazilian supermodel Gisele Bundchen (No. 99, $30.5 million), who boasts fragrance and beauty deals with Chanel and Carolina Herrera, plus her own lines of lingerie and skincare.

Of course, there are still plenty of Hollywood mainstays on the list. The comedian Kevin Hart (No. 6, $87.5 million) has been touring like a rock star with a gross north of $1 million per stop; actress Jennifer Lawrence (No. 50, $46 million) is once again the world’s best-paid leading lady; Dwayne Johnson (No. 19, $64.5 million) posted Rock-solid box office numbers to become the top-earning actor on the planet; and Kim Kardashian (No. 43, $51 million) made millions on her mobile game.0630_forbes-cover-072616-celebrity-kardashian_1000x1292

“I became really intrigued with the tech world. I started spending a lot of time in San Francisco,” Kardashian explained to FORBES without a hint of irony. “I realized this is really going to be the next cycle of my career and this is what I want to focus on.”

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7 Comments

  1. Orlando
    July 13, 06:41 Reply

    sigh,they have a well structured inustry,there are so many way to make money there, from endorsements, franchise etc unlike here,where ur only hope of makting money is by jumping on stage or waiting for glo to sign u… but we are trying, our celebrities are really balling lately

    • Mandy
      July 13, 06:49 Reply

      Lol @waiting for Glo to sign you

  2. Mandy
    July 13, 06:52 Reply

    Even Kim Kardashian is getting taken seriously by Forbes. Nice!

  3. oys
    July 13, 07:43 Reply

    Can’t wait for Bey to slay after her tour!

  4. y
    July 13, 10:52 Reply

    Go James Patterson! This gives me hope that I won’t go totally hungry with my writing ambitions;)

  5. bain
    July 13, 19:52 Reply

    2016 list will be of the hook,riri,chris,justin,bey,adele,scajo,drake…..omo!

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