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UFC champ Khabib Nurmagomedov tops rating of Russia’s most successful stars — Forbes

Placement on the rating’s list is provided by the income of the stars for the year and their popularity
Khabib Nurmagomedov Valery Sharifulin/TASS
Khabib Nurmagomedov
© Valery Sharifulin/TASS

MOSCOW, July 28. /TASS/. Russia’s former UFC Lightweight Champion Khabib Nurmagomedov topped the rating of the most popular and highest-paid Russian stars according to Forbes magazine. The list was published on the publication’s website on Wednesday. 

According to Forbes, from June 1, 2020, to May 31, 2021, Nurmagomedov's income amounted to $12 million, the number of references to the athlete in the media totaled 103,389, and on social networks that figure came to 852,300. The number of his subscribers on Instagram and YouTube reached 29.1 million. As a result, the athlete’s final rating score is 89.04.

Rapper Morgenshtern (Alisher Morgenshtern; born Alisher Tagirovich Valeyev) takes second place in the rating with a $7.4 mln income for the abovementioned period. The rapper was mentioned 47,326 times in the media and more than 4 million times on social networks, his subscribers on Instagram and YouTube total 17.7 million. His final rating score is 84.26.

Singer Olga Buzova ranks third with an income of $3.3 million. The number of references to her in the media is 87,826, while on social networks that figure tops 3 million. The number of subscribers on Instagram and YouTube reached 23.4 million. Her final rating score is 69.8.

Rapper Timati (Timur Yunusov) ranks fourth with an income of $10.4 million. He was mentioned in the media 39,785 times, while on social networks that came to 1.3 million times. His subscribers on Instagram and YouTube number 20.3 million and his final rating score is 67.23.

Leader of the band Leningrad Sergei Shnurov comes in fifth. His income from June 1, 2020 to May 31, 2021 reached $11 million, he was mentioned 16,997 times in the media, and on social networks nearly 254,000 times. That said, the number of his subscribers on Instagram and YouTube reached 8.1 million, His final rating score is 63.23.

Forbes put hockey player Alexander Ovechkin, whose income is estimated at $12.2 mln, in sixth place. The athlete was mentioned 50,668 times in the media and more than 364,000 times on social networks. The number of his subscribers on Instagram and YouTube reached 1.6 million. His final rating score is 52.21.

TV presenter Ksenia Sobchak ranks seventh with an income of $4.7 million. In the abovementioned period she was mentioned in the media almost 90,000 times and about 1.8 mln times on social media. Her subscribers on Instagram and YouTube reached 10.5 million. Her final rating score is 51.54.

Rap artist Basta (Vasily Vakulenko) is eight on the rating list with an income of $5.3 million. He was mentioned in the media 91,230 times and on social media, more than 1.2 mln times, the number of his subscribers on Instagram and YouTube totaled 8.3 million. His final rating score is 50.82.

Captain of the Russian national football team Artem Dzyuba with an income of $5 million took the ninth spot. The number of references about him in the media was almost 94,500, and on social networks it came to 1.5 million. His subscribers on Instagram and YouTube reached 1.3 million. His final rating score is 48.42.

Singer Polina Gagarina comes tenth with an income of $6 mln. The singer was mentioned 32,012 times in the media, 603,300 times in social networks, the number of her subscribers on Instagram and YouTube is estimated at 8.9 million. The final rating is 44.32.

About rating

Placement on the rating’s list is provided by the income of the stars for the year and their popularity, which depends on references in the media and on social networks, queries in Yandex and Google, and the number of subscribers on Instagram and YouTube.

Forbes calculated the total amount of royalties that a musician, artist, athlete, TV presenter, blogger, or model made from June 1, 2020 to May 31, 2021. The publication took into account only the income the stars earned by using their talent.

The scores were calculated separately in five categories. To count references in the media, the magazine used the services of a media analysis system. About 10,000 federal media, Internet media, TV and radio information programs were analyzed. It also evaluated more than 28 billion messages along Russian-language social networks such as VKontakte, Odnoklassniki as well as in Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, on forums, blog platforms, review sites, geoservices, video hosting, UGC sites, on public channels and Telegram chats, and in user comments. The specialists counted the number of queries about the rating participants in Russia and around the world. The number of subscribers to the pages of celebrities on Instagram and YouTube was also taken into account.