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The Social 100: Twitter's Most Followed Celebrities

This article is more than 8 years old.

When Justin Bieber tweets, almost 65 million people read it. On Instagram, 30.9 million people like his shirtless selfies. 72 million people follow his Facebook page’s every like, comment and post. But what Bieber lacks are the millions needed to put him on this year’s list of 100 top-earning celebrities.

Social media is often tapped as an indicator of a star’s power. Those who have a high Twitter or Instagram following could easily reach tens of millions of fans with just 140 characters or a single image. But, surprisingly, number of followers does not always translate to number of dollars. In fact only eight out of the 20 celebrities with the highest Twitter following made our Global Celebrity 100 list of the 100 highest earning celebrities.

While Bieber boasts the second most Twitter followers and Floyd Mayweather doesn’t even have enough to make the top 100 most followed celebrities, Mayweather had the highest earnings between June 2014 and June 2015 with $300 million, and Bieber made less than $28 million, our threshold for making the list. Likewise Rihanna, Shakira and Selena Gomez each has over 29 million Twitter followers, but also didn’t make the cut: Shakira and Selena have never made enough to make the list, and the last time Rihanna made enough to be included—during our 2014 scoring period—she only made $41 million, which would not even put her in this year’s top 50.

That isn’t to say that social media and earnings never go hand in hand or that a high social media following doesn’t help increase earnings. Katy Perry is known for her popularity on various forms of social media: With over 71.5 million followers, she is the most followed celebrity on Twitter. She also boasts 23 million followers on Instagram, and 72 million people like her Facebook page.

With this massive fan base, Perry skyrocketed to number three on our list of highest-earning entertainers—the highest earning non-boxer—making $135 million. While earnings from her Prismatic World Tour made up most of that hefty sum, endorsement deals with CoverGirl, Coty and Claire’s brought in millions.

It is in these deals that social media plays such an important role. With a tweeted snapshot of puckered lips attributed to the CoverGirl gloss shine or a pair of glittery earrings accompanied by a link to the Claire’s website, Perry can reach more people in these brands’ target market than most traditional advertisements.

Taylor Swift, Justin Timberlake and Cristiano Ronaldo have similarly used their fame to increase their fortunes. These celebrities—all who have at least 36 million Twitter followers—boast diverse endorsements deals, ranging from sneakers to soft drinks to underwear, that have helped land them on the Celeb 100.

But with general disparity between the highest earners and top names on Twitter, it seems there are many stars who could cash in on their social media popularity.  The Disney duo of Selena Gomez and Demi Lovato, who are among the top twenty celebrities with the highest Twitter following, could probably sell sweaty gym socks to their screaming teenage fans, while Shakira could charm her way into anyone’s heart—and wallet. But perhaps companies should wait until 2016 before they chose their next spokesperson: With over 60 million followers, Barack Obama is right up there with Perry and the Biebs.

Twitters 100 Most Followed Celebrities

Rank Name Handle Followers
1 Katy Perry @katyperry  71 million +
2 Justin Bieber @justinbieber  64 million +
3 Barack Obama @BarackObama  60 million +
4 Taylor Swift @taylorswift13  59 million +
5 Lady Gaga @ladygaga 47 million +
6 Rihanna @rihanna 47 million +
7 Justin Timberlake @jtimberlake  46 million +
8 Ellen DeGeneres @TheEllenShow  44 million +
9 Britney Spears @britneyspears  42 million +
10 Cristiano Ronaldo @Cristiano  36 million +
11 Kim Kardashian West @KimKardashian  32 million +
12 Jennifer Lopez @JLO  32 million +
13 Shakira @shakira  32 million +
14 Selena Gomez @selenagomez  30 million +
15 Ariana Grande @ArianaGrande  29 million +
16 Demi Lovato @ddlovato 28 million +
17 Oprah Winfrey @Oprah 28 million +
18 P!nk @Pink 26 million +
19 Jimmy Fallon @jimmyfallon 26 million +
20 Harry Styles @Harry_Styles 24 million +
21 One Direction @onedirection 23 million +
22 Drake @Drake 23 million +
23 Lil Wayne @LilTunechi 23 million +
24 Kaka @KAKA 23 million +
25 Adele @OfficialAdele 22 million +
26 Bill Gates @BillGates 22 million +
27 Niall Horan @NiallOfficial 22 million +
28 Alicia Keys @aliciakeys 22 million +
29 LeBron James @KingJames 22 million +
30 Bruno Mars @BrunoMars 21 million +
31 Pitbull @pitbull 20 million +
32 Liam Payne @Real_Liam_Payne 20 million +
33 Wiz Khalifa @wizkhalifa 20 million +
34 Miley Cyrus @MileyCyrus 20 million +
35 Louis Tomlinson @Louis_Tomlinson 19 million +
36 Kevin Hart @KevinHart4real 19 million +
37 Marshall Mathers @Eminem 19 million +
38 Nicki Minaj @NICKIMINAJ 19 million +
39 Avril Lavigne @AvrilLavigne 19 million +
40 Neymar @neymarjr 18 million +
41 Emma Watson @EmWatson 18 million +
42 David Guetta @davidguetta 17 million +
43 Daniel Tosh @danieltosh 17 million +
44 Ashton Kutcher @aplusk 17 million +
45 Conan O'Brien @ConanOBrien 17 million +
46 Niel Patrick Harris @ActuallyNPH 16 million +
47 Mariah Carey @MariahCarey 15 million +
48 Amitabh Bachchan @SrBachchan 15 million +
49 Coldplay @coldplay 15 million +
50 Christina Aguilera @xtina 14 million +
51 Kourtney Kardashian @koutneykardash 14 million +
52 Zayn Malik @zaynmalik 14 million +
53 Jim Carrey @JimCarrey 14 million +
54 Khloe Kardashian @khloekardashian 14 million +
55 Chris Brown @chrisbrown 14 million +
56 Beyoncé Knowles @Beyoncé 14 million +
57 Ed Sheeran @edsheeran 14 million +
58 Ryan Seacrest @RyanSeacrest 13 million +
59 Shah Rukh Khan @iamsrk 13 million +
60 Paris Hilton @ParisHilton 13 million +
61 Agnes Monica @agnezmo 13 million +
62 Will.I.Am @iamwill 13 million +
63 Ivete Sangalo @ivetesangalo 13 million +
64 Aamir Khan @aamir_khan 13 million +
65 Leonardo DiCaprio @LeoDiCaprio 13 million +
66 Narendra Modi @narendramodi 13 million +
67 Ashley Tisdale @ashleytisdale 12 million +
68 Kanye West @kanyewest 12 million +
69 Tyra Banks @tyrabanks 12 million +
70 Alejandro Sanz @AlejandroSanz 12 million +
71 Blake Shelton @blakeshelton 12 million +
72 Salman Khan @BeingSalmanKhan 12 million +
73 Snoop Dogg @SnoopDogg 12 million +
74 Ronaldinho Gaucho @10Ronaldinho 12 million +
75 Ricky Martin @ricky_martin 12 million +
76 Simon Cowell @SimonCowell 12 million +
77 Mohamad Alarefe @MohamadAlarefe 12 million +
78 Charlie Sheen @charliesheen 11 million +
79 Claudia Leitte @ClaudiaLeitte 11 million +
80 Dalai Lama @DalaiLama 11 million +
81 Maroon 5 @maroon5 11 million +
82 Kendall Jenner @KendallJenner 11 million +
83 Andrés Iniesta @andresiniesta8 11 million +
84 Carly Rae Jepsen @carlyraejepson 10 million +
85 Zac Efron @ZacEfron 10 million +
86 Marcos Mion @marcosmion 10 million +
87 Luciano Huck @LucianoHuck 10 million +
88 Gerard Piqué @3girardpique 10 million +
89 Raditya Dika @radityadika 10 million +
90 Deepika Padukone  @deepikapadukone 10 million +
91 Juanes @juanes 10 million +
92 Sean Combs  @iamdiddy 10 million +
93 Kevin Durant  @KDtrey5 10 million +
94 Ludacris  @Ludacris 10 million +
95 Ahmad Mazin Alshugairi  @أحمد الشقيري 10 million +
96 Paulina Rubio  @paurubio 10 million +
97 Danilo Gentili  @DaniloGentilo 10 million +
98 Kelly Clarkson  @kelly_Clarkson 10 million +
99 Usher  @Usher 10 million +
100 Paulo Coelho  @paulocoelho 10 million +