The Podcasters Making the Biggest Bank

Podcast mics are proving as lucrative as movie cameras for a small cadre of hosts, per a new Forbes ranking of 2026's top earners. The outlet finds the biggest names in the medium are now routinely pulling in tens of millions via distribution deals, ads, and partnerships. Here are the highest-paid podcasters of 2026, via USA Today, and the first one isn't surprising:

• Joe Rogan, "The Joe Rogan Experience"—$82M
• John Coogan and Jordi Hays, "TBPN"—$70M
• Steven Bartlett, "The Diary of a CEO"—$45M;
• Ashley Flowers, "Crime Junkie"—$42M
• Will Arnett, Jason Bateman, and Sean Hayes, "SmartLess"—$37M
• Mel Robbins, "The Mel Robbins Podcast"—$35M
• Jason and Travis Kelce, "New Heights"—$35M
• Alex Cooper, "Call Her Daddy"—$32M
• Jon Favreau, Jon Lovett, Dan Pfeiffer, and Tommy Vietor, "Pod Save America"—$28M
• Charlamagne Tha God, "The Breakfast Club"—$27M

Rogan, at least, got one high-profile reaction in the form of Chelsea Handler, notes Entertainment Weekly. "WHO IS PAYING JOE ROGAN 82 million?" she commented on Forbes' Instagram post. "Give that to our vets, or our children!!! 82 million to be completely uninformed and say 'whoopsie doodle,' every time he's wrong, which is FREQUENT?"