- Kylie Jenner and Kanye West, who pulled in $590 million and $170 million respectively, were the highest-earning celebrity.
The highest-earning celebrity in the world has gained a combined $6.1 billion before taxes and fees, a $200 million decline from 2019 after the global pandemic shuttered stadiums and silenced events around the world. The decline was the first since 2016, the year after Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao made nearly half a billion dollars out of the richest fight in boxing history between them. Yet even with Covid-19 lurking — and America on fire in every sense of the word that followed George Floyd’s assassination — the series continued.
Kylie Jenner and Kanye West, who pulled in $590 million and $170 million respectively, were the highest-earning celebrity. West earned much of his earnings from his Yeezy shoe contract with Adidas, while Jenner’s payday came from selling to Coty in January a 51 percent interest in her cosmetics business. While she’d exaggerated about the size of her business over the years, the money she pulled in from the deal was real — enough to rank as one of the biggest celebrity cashouts ever.
Three streaming giants, including Ryan Reynolds (No. 18, $71.5 million), Billie Eilish (No. 43, $53 million), and Jerry Seinfeld (No. 46, $51 million), donated $300 million to stars on the list.
Live performances have powered career-best profits for some of the biggest names in music, with Ed Sheeran’s Divide Tour attracting 8.9 million fans and grossing $776 million over two more years to outperform U2’s record for a single tour. Others will take a hit next year because tours were canceled due to the pandemic from Taylor Swift (No. 25, $63.5 million) to Paul McCartney (No. 93, $37 million), for everybody.
In sports, Roger Federer (No. 3, $106.3 million) became the first tennis player on the list to win the top spot for athletes, while soccer player Cristiano Ronaldo (No. 4, $105 million) became the first team player in his career to win $1 billion. Naomi Osaka set her record at No. 90, earning $37 million in revenue, the most money ever earned by any female athlete in a single year.
Podcasting is making its first appearance in the voice of Bill Simmons (No.13, $82.5 million), who in February sold his podcast company The Ringer for $206 million to Spotify.
Here are the Top 10 Celebrities with their net worth-
- Kylie Jenner– The reality TV star sold 51% of Kylie Cosmetics to publicly traded Coty, Inc. in January 2019 for $600 million; she pocketed $540 million, pretax.
- Kanye West– Kanye West’s deal with Adidas for sneaker brand Yeezy convinced Forbes to call the entrepreneur and musician a billionaire.
- Roger Federer– Roger Federer is the world’s highest-paid athlete for the first time, thanks to an unmatched portfolio of lucrative endorsement deals.
- Cristiano Ronaldo– Cristiano Ronaldo has become the first football player in history to earn $1 billion in his career, and only the fourth ever billionaire athlete.
- Lionel Messi– The Argentinian superstar launched his own clothing line and opened his first retail outlet, The Messi Store, in September 2019 in Barcelona.
- Tyler Perry– A director, actor, producer, and writer, Perry is best known for his “Madea” franchise, which has grossed more than $660 million.
- Neymar– Neymar is on a five-year contract with Paris Saint-Germain through June 2022 worth $350 million in salary.
- Howard Stern– The veteran shock jock is the world’s highest-paid radio host thanks to an eight-figure annual contract with SiriusXM
- LeBron James– Four-time NBA MVP LeBron James joined the Los Angeles Lakers in 2018 under a four-year, $153 million contract.
- Dwayne ‘Rock’ Johnson– Better known as The Rock, Johnson is the world’s highest-paid actor thanks to big paydays for forthcoming films “Black Adam” and “Red Notice.”
You can find the whole list here.
