Bad Bunny is the highest-paid singer in the world as of November 2026, with estimated pretax earnings of about $200 million over the past year. This list ranks solo singers by our estimate of what they earned from music between roughly November 2025 and November 2026: their share of touring, record sales and streaming, and publishing. Bands and groups are left out, and so are fashion, beauty and drink brands, film work and catalog sales.
Touring drives almost all of it. The world’s top 100 touring artists set records for gross and tickets in the first nine months of the 2026 touring year, and the top 10 alone took in about $2.26 billion from 14.3 million tickets. The catch is that groups claimed three of those ten spots, BTS led the whole chart, and a few of the biggest solo names spent the year off the road. So this list rewards whoever toured hardest, with one large exception at number three.
| Rank | Name | Main income | Est. earnings per year (USD) | Tour gross (Nov 2025 to Aug 2026) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10 | Cardi B | Arena tour, streaming | about $35 million | $72.1 million* |
| 9 | Noah Kahan | Touring | about $40 million | about $100 million |
| 8 | Usher | Co-headline tour | about $45 million | $153.4 million** |
| 7 | Chris Brown | Co-headline tour, streaming | about $55 million | $153.4 million** |
| 6 | Ed Sheeran | Touring, publishing | about $60 million | about $105 million |
| 5 | Luke Combs | Stadium tour | about $75 million | $170.2 million |
| 4 | Lady Gaga | Arena tour, streaming | about $105 million | $209.4 million |
| 3 | Taylor Swift | Album sales, catalog, streaming | about $130 million | No tour |
| 2 | The Weeknd | Stadium tour | about $185 million | $261.4 million*** |
| 1 | Bad Bunny | Stadium tour, streaming | about $200 million | $438.6 million |
Tour grosses are box office totals before costs, not earnings. *Through mid-May 2026. **Combined gross of the joint Chris Brown and Usher tour. ***Through August 12; his 2026 legs grossed $378 million through early September, before a 17-date Asia run.
10. Cardi B: $35 million
Cardi B waited almost seven years between her first and second albums, and then went on the first arena tour of her career. The Little Miss Drama Tour grossed $72.1 million in its first six months, enough for seventh place on the midyear touring chart, ahead of the Eagles at the Sphere.
She is also one of the most-streamed women in rap, and her singles earn steadily without new releases.
We give her roughly 40 percent of the reported tour gross, plus streaming and publishing income.
9. Noah Kahan: $40 million
Five years ago Kahan was a mid-level singer-songwriter from Vermont. Then “Stick Season” took off online, and he became the rare folk act who sells out stadiums. By mid-August his 2026 run had grossed in the $100 million range, good for eighth place on the global chart.
His shows are cheaper to stage than a pop spectacle, so a bigger share of each ticket reaches him.
His number comes from a tour gross in the $100 million range, at the higher net share a stripped-down production allows.
8. Usher: $45 million
Usher has been a headliner for almost 30 years and played the Super Bowl halftime show in 2024. In 2026 he teamed up with Chris Brown for a joint stadium tour.
The tour grossed $153.4 million through mid-August, seventh among all acts worldwide. Split two ways, after costs, it still made for one of the best years of his career.
We give him a little under half of the joint tour’s estimated profit, plus catalog streaming.
7. Chris Brown: $55 million
Brown’s streaming numbers are far bigger than his radio play would suggest, and his audience travels. Before the joint tour with Usher, he spent 2025 on a stadium tour of his own across Europe, North America and Africa.
The 2026 co-headline run added $153.4 million in gross through August. He earns more than Usher here because his catalog streams more and the tail end of his own 2025 tour falls inside our window.
We built his estimate from his share of the joint tour, the late-2025 dates of his solo tour, and streaming.
6. Ed Sheeran: $60 million
Sheeran is the most efficient touring act on this list: one man, a guitar and a loop pedal, with no dancers to pay. His Loop Tour grossed $105.2 million from 21 shows and 811,233 tickets in its first half year, the fifth-biggest tour in the world at the midpoint.
He also owns one of the most valuable songwriting catalogs of his generation, with songs that still stream millions of times a day years after release.
The figure combines a generous share of his tour gross, kept high by a lean production, with publishing income.
5. Luke Combs: $75 million
Country music has two stadium acts that can fill any football stadium in America on a weekend, and Combs is one of them. He grossed $170.2 million between November 2025 and mid-August 2026, fifth among all touring acts worldwide and first among country artists.
His audience buys tickets for the songs, not the stage show, which keeps production costs down. That helps his take-home share.
Our estimate rests mainly on the tour gross, plus streaming of a catalog that still sends songs to the top of country radio.
4. Lady Gaga: $105 million
Gaga’s Mayhem Ball broke a record no one expected to fall. Between October 2025 and March 2026 it grossed about $236 million, the biggest half-year total in the history of the industry’s box office chart, which goes back to 1991. A second tracker had it at $209.4 million from 41 shows between November and May.
The tour was built around her 2025 album “Mayhem,” which put her back at the top of the charts, and its arena format meant more shows in each city instead of a few stadium nights.
We use the more conservative of the two grosses, at a lower share than Sheeran or Kahan, because her production is among the most expensive on the road.
3. Taylor Swift: $130 million
Swift did not play a single tour date in our window and still ranks third. Her album “The Life of a Showgirl,” released in October 2025, opened with the biggest first-week sales in modern US chart history, and much of it came from physical copies with several collectible versions.
She also bought back the masters of her first six albums in 2025, which means she now keeps the label’s share of the streams from her whole catalog. Those streams continue at a pace few artists in history have matched.
This is the softest number on the list: our model combines album sales, catalog streaming and publishing, with no tour gross to anchor it.
2. The Weeknd: $185 million
Abel Tesfaye has been on the same tour since 2022, and it keeps getting bigger. The After Hours til Dawn Tour passed $1.07 billion in total gross in September 2026. Its 2026 legs alone sold 2.67 million tickets at 48 stadium shows and grossed $378 million, including five nights at Wembley worth $58.2 million and four at the Stade de France worth $47.3 million.
The final leg, 17 stadium dates in Asia, ran from September 19 to November 5. He also released “Hurry Up Tomorrow,” the final album of his trilogy, in 2025.
We built the estimate from his 2026 stadium grosses and the Asia leg, at a stadium headliner’s share, plus streaming.
1. Bad Bunny: $200 million
Benito Martinez Ocasio sings almost entirely in Spanish and sold more concert tickets than any solo artist on earth this year. His Debí Tirar Más Fotos World Tour grossed $438.6 million from about 3.1 million tickets between November 2025 and mid-August 2026, a total beaten only by BTS.
It made him the first Latin artist to pass $1 billion in career gross in the industry’s tracking data. His streaming numbers are just as large.
Our figure takes a stadium headliner’s share of that $438.6 million and adds streaming income, which together put him just ahead of The Weeknd.
Just outside the top 10
- Beyonce: her Cowboy Carter Tour was the top-grossing solo tour of 2025, but it finished before our window opened, and her brand income is excluded.
- Kendrick Lamar: his big year was 2025, with a Super Bowl halftime show and a stadium tour with SZA. He was not among the top touring acts of 2026.
- Bruce Springsteen: grossed $58.5 million from 14 shows early in 2026, shared with the E Street Band.
- BTS: the top touring act in the world in 2026 at $465.8 million, left out because this list covers solo singers.
What the highest-paid singers have in common
- The road pays the bills. Nine of the ten made most of their money touring. Streaming is steady income, but a stadium tour is where nine-figure years come from.
- Owning your songs changes the math. Swift and Sheeran rank high partly because of who holds the rights. Swift now owns her masters, and Sheeran writes his own hits, so songwriting royalties keep paying in years when they are not on stage.
- Language is no longer a ceiling. The best-paid singer in the world performs in Spanish, and a Korean group topped the touring chart.
- Cheap shows can beat expensive ones. Sheeran, Kahan and Combs keep more of each ticket than acts with giant stage productions, which is why their earnings sit closer to their grosses.
FAQ
Who is the highest-paid singer in 2026?
Bad Bunny, with estimated earnings of about $200 million over the past year, built on a world tour that grossed $438.6 million by mid-August 2026.
How much does The Weeknd make?
About $185 million over the past year by our estimate, mostly from the 2026 legs of his stadium tour, which grossed $378 million before the Asia dates.
How much does Taylor Swift make without touring?
About $130 million over the past year by our estimate, from album sales, catalog streaming and publishing.
Who is the highest-paid female singer?
Taylor Swift, at about $130 million, followed by Lady Gaga at about $105 million.
How much of a tour gross does a singer keep?
It varies widely. Big stadium productions can leave the headliner with under half of the gross after crew, staging, travel and promoter costs, while simple shows can leave much more.
How much does the 10th highest-paid singer make?
About $35 million over the past year by our estimate, the figure we give Cardi B.
How we ranked pay
Our rankings are based on public contract reporting, team and school disclosures, and salary databases, all compiled in an internal pay model. Unless we say otherwise, we rank by the average annual value of each current contract and leave endorsements out of the number. Figures are approximate and can change quickly as new deals are signed.
For this list we say otherwise: singers have no salaries, so we rank by estimated pretax music earnings over roughly the past 12 months, built mainly from reported tour grosses.
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Last updated: November 2026.
