Forbes have released their list of 2015’s highest paid celebrities and it is boxers who have fought their way to the top.
Floyd Mayweather tops the list with his $300 million year, nearly doubling the earnings of Manny Pacquiao who grossed $160 million. Mayweather’s haul smashes the record for athlete earnings, which was previously held by Tiger Woods who banked $115 million in 2008.
It was the pair’s May 2 fight that brought in the vast majority of their earnings and crushed multiple boxing financial records with the fight expected to gross more than $600 million once everything is counted.
It’s been a good year for musicians with spot three occupied by Katy Perry bagging a cool $135 million – thanks mostly to her Prismatic World Tour.
Highest placed UK outfit are the boys from One Direction. That’s right, the world’s biggest boy band is also its biggest band of any sort, with combined earnings of $130 million, One Direction’s income is more than double that of Ed Sheeran who was a busy boy playing 154 shows during the scoring period but could only manage $57 million, good enough for 27th. Just below Ed in 28th and 29th respectively are power couple Jay Z and Beyonce, who netted around $54 million each.
Coming in at five and six respectively are controversial ‘shock-jock’ Howard Stern ($95 million) and Country & Western legend Garth Brooks ($90 million) while author James Patterson takes 7th place ($89 million).
At number eight it’s nice to see Robert Downey Jr. The actor’s earnings have skyrocketed to around $80 million thanks to his roles in Avengers: Age of Ultron and the forthcoming Captain America: Civil War, for which he is commanding a reported $40 million.
Singer-songwriter Taylor Swift completed her transition from country starlet to pop superstar taking the number nine spot with earnings of $80 million. With over 3.6 million copies of album 1989 sold she was one of only three artists with a platinum album last year.
Just making the top ten and highest paid footballer on the list is Cristiano Ronaldo, who netted a cool $79.5 million, while arch rival Lionel Messi could only scrape together $74 million – still good enough to hit number 13 on the list. Unlucky for some Lio…
You can check out the full list here.
