In the olden days it was never really known who was the most popular and least popular member of a boyband. You might have said, 'well, obviously Antony Costa/Shane Lynch/etc is the least popular member of their respective band', but it was hard to prove. Thankfully Twitter is on hand. Let's examine One Direction.
Harry
Followers: 269,280
Analysis: The band's most popular member. This is down to the fact that Harry has the best hair in One Direction.
Liam
Followers: 207,914
Analysis: Liam, whose hair is impressive but a bit of a cliche, is trailing Harry by a massive 62,000 followers. This despite early engagement with 'the Twitter community'. Clearly a disappointing result.
Louis
Followers: 188,519
Analysis: The third most popular band member, but could easily lose out to Zayn (below) whose follower count is only a few thousand behind. Based on this we think the Louis vs Zayn rivalry could be the most disruptive for the band — it involves anger because they both know they will never be as popular as Harry or Liam, and ambition because third place is a coveted spot.
Zayn
Followers: 185,611
Analysis: The fourth most popular member of One Direction but, to be fair, he is also following the fewest other people and rarely tweets. Clearly he is too busy practicing his seriousface in the mirror to be looking on Twitter. The seriousface MUST be ready for the band's launch later this year, or it could be over before it's even begun.
Niall
Followers: 183,470
Analysis: Poor old Niall. Unless he can convincingly argue that he is popular with a demographic
unlikely to be using Twitter — the over-80s, for example — he's very clearly the least popular member of One Direction. We suppose there is probably a sense of relief one can feel in this position, after all he will never really be involved in any significant power struggles within the group, meaning he can just sit around in the background being paid reasonably well to sing some songs every now and again. It worked for Kimberley Walsh, it can work for Niall. And that just leaves…
One Direction (band)
Followers: 192,784
Analysis: What does this mean? That Harry (but only Harry) is already bigger than the band itself. He should just skip the next four years and go solo now. Don't cry, Niall, it's for the best in the long run.