While boy band One Direction’s hiatus continues to haunt longtime fans, there continues to be an immense worldwide support. Selling over 50 million records worldwide, the English-Irish group stand as one of the best selling boy bands in music history.
They are the U.K’s second-biggest boy band, coming behind the Bay City Rollers, who racked 70 million in sales during their teen fever run in the 1970s.
One Direction’s albums Midnight Memories and Four are currently charting in over 40 countries on iTunes. Made In The A.M. follows with a near 38 countries worldwide, then Take Me Home, still flying high overseas in nearly 20 countries.
Because of stable sales around Latin America and many European countries, the group is still placed in the Top 100 Global Digital Artist Rankings List, above many active pop groups and solo stars, like Lana Del Rey, Meghan Trainor, Katy Perry, and Enrique Iglesias.
The teen pop sensation’s short, but impactful run in the music industry was frequently compared to Spicemania and Beatlemania. Their debut single “What Makes You Beautiful” continues to be the group’s best selling song.
Before the group’s impending decision to split and pursue solo careers, several records were released. After only two years, One Direction represented a $50 million dollar empire. Four years later in 2016, Forbes ranked them as the second highest earning celebrities, only behind Taylor Swift.
After releasing their fourth album, they became the first band in Billboard 200 history to have their first four albums debut at the number one spot.
Their Where We Are Tour also notched a spot on the 20 highest grossing tours of all time list with an average attendance of over 49,000 people per concert. The group finds themselves in company with iconic acts like Madonna, the Rolling Stones, and U2.
While reunion speculations are still small, every other boy band has released some form of compilation album featuring their hits. NSYNC, Backstreet Boys, and Take That have all, in some way, released some kind of “collection” album.
