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Joe Budden and Charlamagne Tha God Land on Forbes’ Highest-Paid Podcasters List for 2026
Forbes names Joe Budden and Charlamagne Tha God among the top 20 highest-paid podcasters of 2026.
Podcasting has long since stopped being a side hustle in hip-hop media, and Forbes’ latest ranking makes that plain again. On Thursday, July 30, the outlet published its annual list of the highest-paid podcasters for 2026, with Joe Rogan once more perched at No. 1 at an estimated $82 million. But the bigger story for rap-media watchers is that Joe Budden and Charlamagne Tha God have both turned their platforms into serious business operations, landing inside the top 20 alongside some of the medium’s biggest names.
Charlamagne comes in at No. 10 with $27 million, a figure powered by a media empire that has grown well beyond The Breakfast Club. In addition to co-hosting the long-running radio show and The Brilliant Idiots with Andrew Schulz, he also owns The Black Effect Network, home to The Breakfast Club and more than four dozen other shows, including Pour Minds, The 85 South Show, Big Facts and Decisions, Decisions. TBC also recently entered into a partnership with Netflix, which Forbes notes added to his net worth.
Budden, meanwhile, lands at No. 15 with $20 million. The New Jersey native’s position is largely driven by The Joe Budden Podcast and the subscription structure he has built through Patreon, where he reportedly has about 70,000 paying members. He has also widened the operation through The Joe Budden Network, which now includes several spinoff shows featuring his co-hosts and other personalities from his expanding podcast orbit.
For a scene that once treated podcasting as an extension of radio banter and internet chatter, both men’s placements underline how fully the format has become a legitimate revenue stream. The full top 20 list from Forbes is available below.
