The 10 highest-paid celebs in the world

10. Lebron James

Earnings: $86 million




Cleveland Cavaliers star Lebron James may not be walking away from this year with a championship title, but he got paid: At $86 million in earnings, James is the second-highest-paid athlete in the world after soccer star Christiano Ronaldo.

9. James Patterson

Earnings: $87 million


Patterson is famously prolific, having written more than 160 books in his 40 year career. At one point, his publishers estimated that one in every 21 books sold each year are Patterson titles, many of which have been adapted into films and movies.

8. Coldplay

Earnings: $88 million

While technically not an individual celeb, musical group Coldplay nets about $5 million to play a live show, and decided to extended 2016's A Head full of Dreams tour into the new year. According to Forbes, the band should net their "biggest payday" yet.

7. Howard Stern

Earnings: $90 million

The radio host and shock jock Howard Stern is the highest-paid man in the radio business; Forbes reports that most of his fortune stems from his contract with Sirius XM, but notes he's investing in digital properties as well.

6. The Weeknd

Earnings: $92 million

The weeknd — born Abel Makkonen Tesfaye — is arguably the poster child for streaming success, not traditionally a path where artists could makes lots of money. Yet The Weeknd's 5.5 billion streams helped him make about $1.1 million from each stop on his most recent tour.

5. Cristiano Ronaldo

Earnings: $93 million

The highest-paid athlete in the world last year was Cristiano Ronaldo, who supplements his $50 million annual contract with Real Madrid with a $1 billion lifetime endorsement deal with Nike, his own suite of branded consumer products and a hotel line.

4. Drake

Earnings: $94 million

Aubrey Drake Graham, aka Drake, had more streams than any other artist in the past 12 months, per Forbes, and makes most of his money touring. He also has a number of endorsement deals with companies like Apple.

3. J.K. Rowling

Earnings: $95 million

It was a big year for Harry Potter ventures, with a new book, the stage play and the release of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.

2. Beyoncé Knowles

Earnings: $105 million

Beyoncé has numerous ventures in the pipeline, in addition to her music. Along with her husband — Shawn Carter, aka Jay Z, who came in at number 55 on the latest Forbes list — she owns a stake in the streaming service Tidal, which saw its value soar last year, when Sprint invested some $200 million.

1. Sean Combs

Earnings: $130 million

In addition to selling his Sean John stake, Diddy, age 47, also toured this year and inked a deal with Ciroc vodka, which collectively was enough for him to gain the top spot on the Forbes list.