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Taylor Swift Is The Top-Earning Celebrity Of 2016

By Trisha Faulkner
Published on: 12:51 PST, Jul 11, 2016

Every year, Forbes releases a list featuring the top 100 highest-paid celebrities of the year. For the year 2016, Taylor Swift has soared to the top of the list. According to USA Today, Taylor currently has a net worth of $170 million.

With that kind of money sitting in her bank account, Taylor Swift fans wish “Hiddleswift” nothing but the best as they head for Australia’s Gold Coast on a private plane. USA Today believes the couple may be en route to the Queensland set for Thor: Ragnarok which will feature the return of Taylor’s boyfriend Hiddleston as Loki.

With this year’s paycheck competition, Swift was able to beat out a number of entertainers including Adele who placed ninth with $80.5 million, Madonna who placed 12th with $76.5 million, and Rihanna who placed 13th with $75 million.

For anyone who regularly follows the top-earning list, you may be surprised to see Katy Perry in 63rd place with just $41 million. Katy Perry is usually the toughest competition Taylor Swift has for the top of this list each year. In fact, Katy Perry earned $135 million last year – compared to Taylor Swift’s $80 million. This year, however, Taylor was able to turn the tides and earned even more than Perry earned last year.

It was thanks to her world tour that Perry was able to beat out Taylor Swift and reach the top of the list last year. In addition to her world tour, her slew of hits and lucrative deals with major companies for product endorsements also helped.

This year, however, Perry has dialed things back as she campaigns for Hilary Clinton. Meanwhile, Taylor has her worldwide 1989 tour to thank for smashing records. Her tour featured an entire galaxy of all her celebrity friends – inviting them on stage to help her perform at nearly every stop during the tour.

USA Today also reports that Taylor Swift’s ex-boyfriend, Calvin Harris also made the list at 21st place with $63 million. If he and Taylor were still together, they would have been the top-earning celebrity couple of the year. According to Forbes, Taylor and Calvin would have more than doubled what Jay Z and Beyonce were able to earn – $107.5 million.

Forbes made the decision to feature Kim Kardashian on the cover of the magazine containing the list despite the fact that she was only No. 42 with $51 million earned. Forbes wanted to draw attention to the fact that Kim was able to earn a little more than $50 million by going into the gaming industry as her new mobile game called Kim Kardashian: Hollywood was largely to thank for the paycheck she was able to earn this year.

Perhaps Taylor has decided she wants in on the $50 million Kim made with her mobile game as Swift will also be getting in on the gaming industry, as a game maker called Glu Mobile has plans to release an app starring Swift sometime later this year.

Curious about who else Taylor managed to beat out to make the top of this year’s highest-paid celebrities? Here are the other nine highest-paid celebrities in the top 10 on the list:

  • One Direction at No. 2 with $110 million
  • Author James Patterson at No. 3 with $93 million
  • Phil McGraw at No. 4 with $88 million
  • Portuguese soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo at No. 5 with $88 million
  • Actor and Comedian Kevin Hart at No. 6 with $87.5 million
  • Howard Stern at No. 7 with $85 million
  • Argentine soccer star Lionel Messi at No. 8 with $81.5 million
  • Singer Adele at No. 9 with $80.5 million
  • Radio host Rush Limbaugh at No. 10 with $79 million

Do you think Taylor Swift has earned her place as the highest-paid celebrity of the year? If you were Taylor Swift and you had $170 million sitting in your bank account, what would you spend it on?

[Photo by Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images]

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