Highest-paid podcasters revealed Who tops the list at $82M and how much the Kelce bros made
Forbes on Thursday unveiled its list of the 20 highest-paid podcasters in 2026, from celebrity shows hosted by the Kelce brothers or comedian Amy Poehler to political and true crime podcasts – all of which rake in tens of millions of dollars.Joe Rogan unsurprisingly reigned supreme as the world’s highest-paid podcaster.Over the past year, the 58-year-old UFC broadcaster earned $82 million from his Spotify show, “The Joe Rogan Experience.”The show’s three-hour episodes include conversations with scientists, comedians and entrepreneurs – including several controversial figures – at Rogan’s Austin, Texas, studio, and it’s perhaps best known for Rogan’s interview of President Trump ahead of the 2024 election.Rounding out the top three are John Coogan and Jordi Hays, hosts of the OpenAI-owned tech podcast network TBPN, who earned an estimated $70 million since June 2025, and Steven Bartlett, 33, whose corporate interview show “The Diary of a CEO” earned him $45 million.Football bros Jason and Travis Kelce brought in $35 million from their Amazon podcast “New Heights,” putting them in seventh place. The podcast picked up steam in 2023 as Travis started dating now-wife pop superstar Taylor Swift and after his Kansas City Chiefs faced off against Jason’s Philadelphia Eagles in Super Bowl LIX.Hollywood celebrities, who have increasingly entered the alternative media space, raked in the big bucks – benefiting from already-established fanbases and an ability to nab interviews with their famous friends. “SmartLess,” the SiriusXM show hosted by comedians Will Arnett, Jason Bateman and Sean Hayes, earned its hosts $37 million – ranking as the fifth-highest paid podcasters.American actor Dax Shepard, 51, made $25 million from his Amazon show “Armchair Expert” while comedian and producer Amy Poehler, 54, earned $24 million from her Spotify podcast “Good Hang,” which earlier this year won the first-ever Golden Globe award for podcasti...