Taylor Swift Is Top-Earning Celebrity With $170 Million in 2016

Taylor Swift Is Top-Earning Celebrity With $170 Million in 2016
Singer Taylor Swift arrives on the red carpet during the 58th Annual Grammy Music Awards in Los Angeles February 15, 2016. (VALERIE MACON/AFP/Getty Images)
7/12/2016
Updated:
12/30/2023

Taylor Swift sits atop another list.

The “Bad Blood” singer raked in $170 million last year, crowning her with the No.1 spot on the 2016 Forbes Celebrity 100 list.

Swift has her extremely lucrative 1989 World Tour to thank. Her fourth concert tour—promoting her fifth studio album “1989”—grossed $200 million just from the North American leg of the tour.

Despite tickets for the tour being the most expensive ever for the musician—courtesy of ticket scalpers—the 84-date tour that spanned seven months grossed a total of $250 million. 

The 26-year-old also has partnership deals with Diet Coke, Keds, and Apple.

Swift is a common fixture in Apple music commercials. In the most recent commercial, Swift “dances like no one is watching” with a few high kicks, jumps, and flailing arms while singing to “I Believe In a Thing Called Love” by British rock band, The Darkness.

Second on the Forbes list this year is boy band One Direction, earning $110 million. Rounding out the top 5 are author James Patterson, earning $95 million; talk show host Dr. Phil McGraw and soccer phenomenon Cristiano Ronaldo, who both earned $88 million; and comedian Kevin Hart, who reeled in $87.5 million.

Taylor Swift was also 2015’s highest paid musician with $73.5 million. Billboard released its annual list of top earners which ranks musicians’ earnings in 2015. Swift’s popular 1989 Tour accounted for 84 percent of the singer’s total revenue, where she earned $61.7 million. She also made $4.1 million in publishing and sold 7.2 million copies of her Grammy winning album, “1989.”