From newcomer Roger Federer to Oprah Winfrey, here are the 22 athletes and entertainers who have translated their fame into ten-figure fortunes.
It’s been sixteen years since Bruno Mars and the rapper Travie McCoy first sang about wanting to be billionaires on the cover of Forbes magazine. And while neither artist has managed to achieve that feat so far, a small but growing group of their celebrity peers did manage to make Forbes’ 2026 World’s Billionaires list.
With both athletes and entertainers signing increasingly large contracts and endorsement deals, and acting more like owners and entrepreneurs (and less like employees) than ever before, Forbes found 22 celebrity billionaires worth a collective $48.1 billion on this year’s ranking. That’s up from 18 worth a total of $39 billion in 2025.
The new additions to the 2026 list are Beyonce Knowles-Carter, Roger Federer, Dr. Dre and James Cameron. They join legends like Steven Spielberg, George Lucas and Oprah Winfrey, who debuted on Forbes’ billionaires list in the 1990s and early 2000s, and more recent additions such as Kim Kardashian, Taylor Swift and Rihanna.
Defining “celebrity” isn’t easy, but Forbes has elected to feature people who became famous first, then massively rich. That definition skews heavily in favor of entertainers and athletes. It doesn’t include those who are famous for being wealthy or for the success of their businesses, like President Donald Trump and Mark Cuban.
Here are the 22 celebrities rich enough to make Forbes’ 2026 World’s Billionaires list, in net worth order.
NET WORTHS AS OF MARCH 1, 2026
#22. Dr. Dre
Net Worth: $1 billion | Age: 61 | Citizenship: United States
The legendary rapper and music producer cofounded headphone maker Beats Electronics and streaming service Beats Music, which he and other investors sold to Apple for some $3 billion in cash and stock in 2014. He also founded record label Aftermath Entertainment in 1996, and famously helped launch the careers of superstars like Eminem, 50 Cent and Kendrick Lamar, after leaving his pioneering rap group N.W.A and label Death Row Records.
#21. Beyoncé Knowles-Carter
Net worth: $1 billion | Age: 44 | Citizenship: United States
The majority of pop star Beyonce’s net worth comes from her roughly three decades as a solo performer and a member of the girl-group Destiny’s Child. She holds the record for the most Grammy wins ever, with 35, and won her first Album of the Year trophy in 2025. She and her billionaire husband Jay-Z purchased a $200 million Malibu mansion in 2023, in what was the most expensive home sale in California history.
#20. Rihanna
Net worth: $1 billion | Age: 38 | Citizenship: Barbados
While Rihanna may keep fans guessing about new music after 10 years without a new album, her fortune was largely built offstage. Her biggest asset is Fenty Beauty, the cosmetics company she co-owns with LVMH. The luxury goods conglomerate is reportedly exploring a sale of its stake in Fenty in a deal that could value the company between $1 billion and $2 billion.
#19. James Cameron
Net worth: $1.1 billion | Age: 71 | Citizenship: Canada
Cameron has directed three of the four highest-grossing movies of all time: Titanic, Avatar, and Avatar: The Way of Water. He’s the second-highest grossing director ever after fellow billionaire Steven Spielberg, having generated a total of almost $9 billion at the global box office. When Avatar earned nearly $3 billion in theatres, and millions more from DVD sales and streaming, Cameron earned an estimated $350 million before taxes and fees.
#18. Roger Federer
Net Worth: $1.1 billion | Age: 44 | Citizenship: Switzerland
Federer didn’t just win 20 Grand Slam tennis titles before retiring in 2022. He also built one of the most valuable endorsement portfolios in sports history, earning $100 million off the court in a single year at his peak from brands like Uniqlo, Rolex and Mercedes. His biggest win has been an estimated 3% stake in Swiss athletic apparel company On, which went public in 2021 and now boasts a market cap of nearly $15 billion.
#17. Jerry Seinfeld
Net worth: $1.1 billion | Age: 71 | Citizenship: United States
The comedian is still making money from his ‘90s hit show Seinfeld. He and co-creator Larry David reportedly earn 15% of the sitcom’s syndication revenue, which includes sales to local television stations and streaming platforms. In 2019, Netflix acquired the show’s global streaming rights in a five-year deal worth more than $500 million.
#16. Arnold Schwarzenegger
Net Worth: $1.2 billion | Age: 78 | Citizenship: United States
One of the highest paid actors in Hollywood history, the former California governor has earned some $500 million (before taxes and fees) in paychecks and profit-sharing deals from his movies. He’s made even more from early bets on everything from California real estate to some of the world’s most valuable brands. One of his best investments: a minority stake in billionaire David Booth’s Dimensional Fund Advisors when it was managing $12 billion in assets. DFA now has more than $1 trillion of assets under management.
#15. Bruce Springsteen
Net Worth: $1.2 billion | Age: 76 | Citizenship: United States
The Rock and Roll Hall of Famer has sold more than 140 million albums globally over his 50 years of touring and recording. His biggest check came from selling his music catalog to Sony Music Entertainment for a $500 million lump sum in 2021.
#14. LeBron James
Net worth: $1.4 billion | Age: 41 | Citizenship: United States
James has earned upwards of $500 million in pretax salary from stints with the NBA’s Cleveland Cavaliers, the Miami Heat and his current team, the Los Angeles Lakers. He has also raked in more than $1 billion (pretax) off the court, according to Forbes estimates, from his business ventures and endorsement deals with the likes of PepsiCo, Nike and Beats by Dre.
#13. Tyler Perry
Net worth: $1.4 billion | Age: 56 | Citizenship: United States
A director, actor, producer and writer, Perry is best known for his “Madea” franchise, which has grossed more than $660 million. His wealth comes both from his cut as a producer and from a library dating back to the early 1990s. He owns 100% of the content he’s created.
#12. Dick Wolf
Net worth: $1.5 billion | Age: 79 | Citizenship: United States
Wolf is the mastermind behind the Law & Order, Chicago and FBI television franchises. His Wolf Entertainment has had a profit participation deal with Universal Television since 2004, allowing him to retain nearly half of his shows’ profits when they sell into syndication.
#11. “Tiger” Woods
Net worth: $1.5 billion | Age: 50 | Citizenship: United States
Woods has earned roughly $1.9 billion (pretax) during his pro golf career, including a PGA Tour-record $121 million in prize money. And that’s despite him reportedly turning down a “mind-blowingly enormous” offer from the upstart LIV Golf tour that former LIV CEO Greg Norman told the Washington Post would have been in the “high nine digits.”
#10. Magic Johnson
Net worth: $1.6 billion | Age: 66 | Citizenship: United States
Johnson only earned about $40 million in total salary and less than $4 million a year in endorsements during his playing career, mainly with the Los Angeles Lakers in the 1980s. Now he’s a minority owner of four pro sports teams, including the Los Angeles Dodgers and Washington Commanders, but most of his wealth comes from his majority stake in nearly $34 billion (assets) life insurance company Equitrust, which he took over in 2015.
#9. Peter Jackson
Net worth: $1.9 billion | Age: 64 | Citizenship: New Zealand
Best known for directing the Lord of the Rings and Hobbit trilogies, Jackson became a billionaire in 2021 after selling the technology division of his visual effects company Wētā FX to Unity Software for $1.6 billion in cash and stock. He is set to return to the franchise that made him famous later this year as a producer on the upcoming film, The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum.
#8. Kim Kardashian
Net worth: $1.9 billion | Age: 45 | Citizenship: United States
Kardashian rose to fame as the star of the hit reality TV series Keeping Up with the Kardashians. But she’s a billionaire thanks to her shapewear business Skims, which private investors valued at $5 billion in the company’s most recent funding round in 2025.
#7. Taylor Swift
Net Worth: $2 billion | Age: 36 | Citizenship: United States
Swift became a billionaire in 2023, thanks to the earnings from her Eras tour and the value of her music catalog. Her fortune includes nearly $1 billion in estimated wealth amassed from royalties and touring, plus a music catalog worth an estimated $900 million and some $100 million of real estate.
#6. Jay-Z
Net worth: $2.8 billion | Age: 56 | Citizenship: United States
Since becoming hip-hop’s first billionaire in 2019, Jay-Z has nearly tripled his fortune, thanks in large part to his lucrative liquor businesses. He sold 50% of spirits brand Armand de Brignac, otherwise known as Ace of Spades, to luxury goods giant LVMH in 2021, and sold a majority of his stake in cognac brand D’Usse to Bacardi in 2023.
#5. Oprah Winfrey
Net worth: $3.2 billion | Age: 72 | Citizenship: United States
Winfrey parlayed her hit talk show, which ran for 25 years until 2011, into a media and business empire. She has reinvested some of the profits from her show, plus profits from films like The Color Purple, Beloved and Selma (which her Harpo Productions co-produced) into her sprawling real estate portfolio, which includes over a dozen properties and 2,100 acres of land in Hawaii.
#4. Vincent McMahon
Net worth: $3.6 billion | Age: 80 | Citizenship: United States
Vince McMahon grew World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) from a regional operation into a global phenomenon. He joined his father’s small wrestling company in 1972, bought the business a decade later and took it public in 1999. McMahon combined WWE with the UFC to form TKO Group Holdings in a $21 billion merger in 2023. He stepped down as executive chairman of TKO in 2024 amid sexual misconduct allegations, which he has denied.
#3. Michael Jordan
Net worth: $4.3 billion | Age: 63 | Citizenship: United States
Jordan’s salary during his NBA career totaled just $90 million, but he has earned more than $2 billion (pretax) from such corporate partners as Nike, Hanes and Gatorade. He sold most of his majority stake in the NBA’s Charlotte Hornets in a 2023 deal that valued the team at around $3 billion but reportedly retained a minority stake in the franchise.
#2. George Lucas
Net worth: $5.2 billion | Age: 81 | Citizenship: United States
After selling his film production company Lucasfilm to Disney in 2012 for $4 billion in cash and stock, the Star Wars and Indiana Jones creator has largely retired from filmmaking. He is now focused on philanthropy and the development of the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, which is scheduled to open in Los Angeles this year.
#1. Steven Spielberg
Net worth: $7.1 billion | Age: 79 | Citizenship: United States
The DreamWorks studios cofounder and highest grossing film director of all-time, Spielberg still gets a slice of every ticket sold at Universal theme parks, thanks to his blockbuster hits like Jaws, Jurassic Park and Indiana Jones. His newest film, the sci-fi thriller Disclosure Day, is scheduled to be released in May.
This article was originally published on forbes.com and all figures are in USD.
Want to see more Forbes articles on your feed? Tap here to make Forbes Australia a preferred source on Google.
Look back on the week that was with hand-picked articles from Australia and around the world. Sign up to the Forbes Australia newsletter here or become a member here.
