Taylor Swift came in no.1 in the Forbes 2016 annual celebrity 100 list for the highest paid celebrity in the world.
The pop star raked in $170m in 2016, outpacing her rival Katy Perry who was last year’s highest-paid musician. One Direction’s combined earnings came in second place, with the band estimated to be worth $110m.
American thriller author James Patterson, was in third spot with $95m. Patterson has sold more than 300 million copies of his books and holds the Guinness World Record for being the first person to sell one million e-books. TV personality Dr Phil McGraw, who hosts popular talk show Dr Phil, and Real Madrid’s Cristiano Ronaldo came at joint number four with $88m. They are followed by Kevin Hart, who has earnings of $87.5m, at number seven. Radio host and self-proclaimed “king of media” Howard Stern took 7th spot with $85m, while Argentine soccer sensation Lionel Messi was listed at number eight with $81.5m.
Adele occupied ninth place with $80.5m after her phenomenally successful album 25. Conservative radio host and political commentator Rush Limbaugh, who is one of the most listened to radio hosts in the US, wrapped up the top ten list with $79m. The world’s 100 highest-paid celebrities amassed a total of $5.1 billion (£3.9bn) in pretax earnings over the past 12 months, more than the combined GDP of Belize, Gambia and Bhutan.