The annual list ranks United above Real Madrid with Arsenal leapfrogging AC Milan into third spot and Chelsea in eighth position. City are in 17th position.
Meanwhile, David Beckham has lost top spot to Ronaldinho as the world's highest-earning footballer, with Wayne Rooney United's highest ranked player in fourth.
Ten Premiership sides appear on Forbes' list of the world's 25 most valuable football teams followed by clubs from Italy (four), Germany (four), Spain (two), France (two), Scotland (two) and Holland (one).
The Forbes list however says United no longer command the largest yearly revenues as Real Madrid (£191m), Barcelona (£169m) and Juventus (£164m) - who all have their own individual TV deals - surpassed their figure of £158m.
Salvatore Galatioto, president of the sports banking firm Galatioto Sports Partners, said China remains the key area for future growth.
He said: "A big reason why these teams are attracting suitors is their growth potential in all of Asia, but China is the key.
"You have great brands with these soccer teams that have not been fully exploited."
Forbes say Beckham's lucrative move to Los Angeles Galaxy at the end of the season could see the former England captain recapture his position as football's highest earner.
Team valuations in pounds sterling according to Forbes:
1 Man Utd £740million
2 Real Madrid £528million
3 Arsenal £466million
4 Bayern Munich £427million
5 AC Milan £420million
6 Juventus £289million
7 Inter Milan £282million
8 Chelsea £274million
9 Barcelona £273million
10 Schalke 04 £240million
11 Liverpool £231million
12 Lyon £175million
13 Newcastle £132million
14 Tottenham £124million
15 Roma £114million
16 Hamburg £112million
17 Man City £106million
18 B Dortmund £101million
19 Ajax £100million
20 Celtic £94million
21 Everton £84million
22 Marseille £80million
23 West Ham £79million
24 Rangers £75million
25 Aston Villa £71m
Highest-earning players, according to Forbes
1 Ronaldinho (Barcelona) £15.2million
2 David Beckham (Real Madrid) £14.8million
3 Ronaldo (AC Milan) £11.7million
4 Wayne Rooney (Man Utd) £8.7million
5 Michael Ballack (Chelsea) £8.7million
6 Thierry Henry (Arsenal) £8.2million
7 Zinedine Zidane (ex-Real Madrid) £8.2million
8 Fabio Cannavaro (Real Madrid) £7.6million
9 John Terry (Chelsea) £7.1million
10 Steven Gerrard (Liverpool) £7.1million
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If only this boring list would mean that we could compete with Barca, Chelsea and RM in the transfer market. Since the summer we have sold RvN, Mikel, Jones and Howard generating 27m and we have only brought in Carrick and KitKat. That is what I call a shrewd business plan. It will be very interesting to see if they continue this strategy over the summer.
It strikes me as staggering that despite their success both internationally and at club level and the number of excellent players that have emerged from Portugal that no Portuguese clubs feature in this list. You have to applaud a country with such a prodigious supply of quality players without the wealth of other footballing nations to achieve this, not to mention thanks for giving us Ronaldo.
WoW is this right,next storey.
UNITED are the crown jewels of British football,they're priceless.
These player financial league tables are a bit obscene.No wonder they come on TV wearing diamonte earings! What's happened to the man's game!
Most valuable has a strange interpretation for soccer.If these were Stock Exchange listings United I fear would be way down the list.Their new owners much to the annoyance of true MUFC fans have mortgaged the future of the Club to such an extent that Sir Alex's successor makes an error or two on this ever escalating transfer market then the true value could send the Club into mid table financially speaking of course.
Both United and City (and perhaps some of the other teams mentioned) are in a false position in this so-called league, due to their level of debt. That's probably why they are now deemed 'most valuable' rather than 'richest'. It's all nonsense.
What do they know? Had lunch with Forbes guys last week, too American for me.
Who is kitkat?
thank you Duncan, Unfortunatly portuguese football is depending on three clubs( Benfica, sporting, Porto), they have their stadiums with a minimun of 30 thousand supporters but the other clubs have around 3 thousand...imagine the gap. I am please at national team level, having the best potuguese team ever with a lot of youngsters with super talent comming in. My advice to United is to take advantage of the deal they have with Sporting and make sure when their best youngsters move that they go for United. Queiros is a great coach and you all will soon realize that SAF knows that he will creat a great team within the next five years, offcourse that is also really important to keep Ronaldo......Real are a very tricky club and because of their name and history they can attract any one, I still believe that he will do the right option which is to stay at united.
Cheers again Duncan.