Michael Jackson Estate Tops Forbes' 2025 Dead Celebrities

Michael Jackson's estate again topped Forbes' 2025 list of highest-paid deceased celebrities, earning about $105 million in the past year and roughly $3.5 billion since his 2009 death, largely from catalog sales and catalog-stake deals. Major catalog transactions also drove payouts for other legacies: a Pink Floyd catalog sale to Sony produced roughly $81 million payments each to the estates of Syd Barrett and Richard Wright, and estates such as Jimmy Buffett's and the Notorious B.I.G.'s ranked among the year's top earners. Forbes' rankings underscore the continuing market for music catalogs and licensing as a primary source of posthumous income. The list was published amid a year marked by numerous high-profile deaths across politics, sports and entertainment, prompting broad reflection on cultural legacies.