Aug 5, 2026
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Add us on GoogleJoe Rogan, a controversial podcaster who faced public backlash for endorsing President Trump during the 2024 election (among other controversies), has been named the highest-earning podcaster of 2026.
As Forbes reports, Rogan earned an estimated $82 million from hosting The Joe Rogan Experience between June 2025 and June 2026, which is $12 million more than the second-place podcaster(s).
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John Coogan and Jordi Hays, hosts of TBPN (Technology Business Programming Network), earned $70 million during that period, while Steven Bartlett (The Diary of a CEO, $45 million), Ashley Flowers (Crime Junkie, $42 million) and the team of Will Arnett, Jason Bateman and Sean Hayes (SmartLess, $37 million) round out the top five.
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Forbes’ calculated earnings are an estimation of the total amount earned through a podcaster(s) business, including platform fees and revenue sharing. The estimations also represent pretax earnings and did not include live shows, instead focusing on broadcasts that were either distributed on YouTube or syndicated later on.
While The Joe Rogan Experience is widely considered to be one of, if not the most successful podcasts in the world, Rogan still has plenty of haters and some were quick to share their displeasure with this news online.
‘WHO IS PAYING JOE ROGAN 82 million?’
No one seemed to be irked by this news more than Chelsea Handler, who didn’t hold back when commenting on Forbes’ Instagram post.
“WHO IS PAYING JOE ROGAN 82 million?” the comedian asked. “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?”
And while many defended Rogan in their reply to Handler’s comment, others agreed with her take.
“He’s one of those people who makes you scratch your head and say ‘how did he get there,’” said one commenter. “More importantly, who is listening? Why are they listening? That’s the part that really stands out to me,” said another.
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Podcast takes off after deal with Spotify
Rogan created The Joe Rogan Experience podcast in 2009 and quickly made a name for himself on the burgeoning platform. Using his celebrity status as a comedian, Rogan was able to land several big names for guest appearances, including Neil deGrasse Tyson, Anthony Bourdain, Edward Snowden and Bernie Sanders.
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In 2020, Rogan signed a multi-year deal that paid him at least $200 million to stream his podcast exclusively on Spotify, a move that angered legendary Canadian rock musician Neil Young. In fact, Young was so displeased by Rogan’s frequent sharing of vaccine misinformation during the pandemic that he pulled all of his music from Spotify.
“Everything’s shut down, everything’s staying shut down,” Rogan recalled of his experience during the pandemic in California, MarketWatch reports. “All my friends that were in the restaurant industry were struggling.”
In 2024, Rogan and his family moved to Austin, Texas in order to escape California’s strict covid restrictions. “I started looking out here [Austin] in May [2020], and I went to a restaurant with my kids, and they were like, ‘We don’t have to wear a mask? We could eat at a restaurant?’” said Rogan. “Then we went to the lake, and people are playing music and jumping in the water, and [my children] were like, ‘We want to live here!’ That was it. Two months later I lived here.”
That same year, Rogan signed a new $250 million deal with Spotify that allowed him to stream his podcast on other platforms including Apple Podcasts, YouTube and Amazon Music. The Joe Rogan Experience now boasts an average of 11 million listeners and viewers per episode.
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Chase is an Associate Editor for Wise Publishing. He formerly worked at Yahoo Canada as an editor on both the News and Sports teams.
