What Is Joe Rogan’s Net Worth?

Joe Rogan started with the UFC in 1997, when he was responsible for handling backstage and post-fight interviews. He stayed in that role for a couple of years until he quit because his salary couldn’t cover the travel, which he had to pay for out of his own pocket.

Rogan was still a fan, though. Therefore he continued going to events. When Zuffa purchased the UFC in 2001, Rogan made friends with the President of the company, Dana White. Seeing how big of a fan of MMA he was, White offered Rogan a job as a color commentator. Rogan declined, wanting to continue to watch fights purely as a fan. Eventually, they came to a deal where Rogan would work for no money instead of receiving tickets for himself, friends, and family, which the pair felt was a good balance for them both. He did this for fifteen events until he started receiving a salary.

Of course, in the years since he started doing that, his popularity has increased tenfold. Nowadays, Rogan only handles UFC PPVs in the States, and even then, he skipped the last one, which took place in Texas. There’s no word on what exactly his contract states, but some have speculated that Rogan earns a massive $500k for each event he commentates, which would total to around $5-6 million in a year for 10-12 nights of work. Those numbers sound insane but aren’t too far-fetched. He certainly gets paid more than the vast majority of UFC fighters get paid to fight, which you could argue is fair considering his star power and time with the company.

Another massive earner for Joe Rogan is his comedy career. From 2000 to 2018, Rogan has released 10 comedy specials, the first being released on CD and DVD and the last couple being exclusive to Netflix. Although there are no confirmed numbers for the Netflix deal, it’s worth noting that Dave Chappelle received $40 million on two occasions for a pair of comedy specials each time, meaning $20 million per special. Although Rogan doesn’t hold the weight that Chappelle does in comedy, it’s not unreasonable to think that Rogan’s star power and cult-like fan base managed to get him around $5 million per special.

In 2009, Rogan started a free podcast with Brian Redban, who later left the show. A couple of years after its inception, the show was picked up by SiriusXM, this after it was featured in iTunes’ list of the Top 100 Podcasts. In January of 2015, the podcast was downloaded 11 million times, and 9 months later, it was downloaded 16 million times in October. By April of 2019, Rogan claimed that the podcast was being downloaded 190 million times monthly. The growth was exponential. That same year, the podcast was indisputably the biggest on the planet and made a reported $30 million.

Famously, Rogan signed an exclusive deal for the podcast with Spotify in May of 2019. It was announced that the podcast would live there from September of the same year, which was met with some murmur about whether this would mean Rogan would be censored to some extent. The deal was reportedly worth $100 million, making it one of the biggest in podcast history. It was enough for Rogan to move from California to Texas to allegedly avoid the income tax. He also bought a home in Lake Austin worth $14 million.

Former guests on the show include Kanye West, Robert Downey Jr., Dave Chappelle, Mike Tyson, Elon Musk, and many more stars.

All in all, Rogan has made enough money in his lifetime to never work again, and any one of his endeavors on their own could make him enough money to live comfortably, but he continues to be a man that wears many hats.