She is still only 26, but Taylor Swift is the world’s highest-paid celebrity, amassing in a staggering $170 million over the past year, Forbes magazine reports on Monday.
According to Forbes, the pop superstar’s revenue from June 2015 to June 2016 is the highest total of her young career, more than doubling her previous record of $80 million last year.
On her way to become the world’s top earner, she out-earned other famous musicians including Adele ($80.5 million), Madonna ($76.5 million), Rihanna ($75 million) and Bruce Springsteen ($60.5 million).
The “Shake It Off” singer also leap-frogged rival Katy Perry who was last year’s top-earning musician at $135 million.
Perry dropped to number 63 on this year’s list, earning a mere $41 million.
Swift’s jaw-dropping earnings were largely as a result of her 1989 World Tour during which she smashed the Rolling Stone’s North American record, grossing $200 million on the continent en route to a quarter of a billion worldwide, the magazine said.
Coming in at number two on the list this year was the boy band One Direction, ($110 million), followed by author James Patterson ($95 million).
Portugal and Real Madrid football star Cristiano Ronaldo, and US television personality Dr. Phil McGraw, were both tied at fourth with earnings of $88 million, the magazine said.
Other top 10 spots were held by American comedian Kevin Hart, British singer Adele and Barcelona footballer Lionel Messi alongside US radio hosts Howard Stern and Rush Limbaugh.
Taylor’s former beau, musician Calvin Harris, also made the cut coming in at number 21 ($63 million).
Interestingly, according to Forbes, “The world’s 100 highest-paid celebrities pulled in $5.1 billion pretax over the past 12 months, more than the GDP of Belize, Gambia and Bhutan combined,”.
Magazine editor Zack O’Malley Greenberg said live entertainment continues to be a major cash draw.
“From soccer games in Spain to concerts in China, fans are willing to shell out to see big names — and this is driving the celebrity economy to ever greater heights,” he said in a statement.
Jennifer Lawrence continued her reign as the industry’s highest-paid actress for the second consecutive year, earning $46 million, a slight drop from the $52 million The Hunger Games star banked the year before.
Actor Dwayne Johnson overtook Iron Man’s Robert Downey Jr., as the highest-paid actor from earning $64.5 million, largely thanks to the billion-dollar Fast and Furious franchise and the surprising success of 2015’s San Andreas movie.
