Liam Payne's One Direction now worth £25m
One Direction are to be named the world's richest's boy band – worth an estimated £25 million, it has been revealed.
The group, which features Wolverhampton's Liam Payne, will be named into the list of music millionaires under the age of 30 in the latest Sunday Times Rich List, thanks to their individual personal wealth.
It means its members, who are each aged between 19 and 21, have amassed around £5m each since being thrust together as a band on the 2010 series of TV talent show X Factor.
The list will be announced next month.
It is the latest boost for the group, including Harry Styles, Liam and Niall Horan, all 19; Zayn Malik, 20, and Louis Tomlinson, 21.Their first album Up All Night,which included the debut number one single What Makes You Beautiful, which topped the charts in 16 countries.
They then became the first act in two decades to have two of the year's biggest-selling albums, as their follow-up offering Take Me Home sold around three million copies. Their fortune was swollen further by the takings from their 60 sell-out shows in 2012, which raked in £11.8 million.
The band opened their third merchandise store, 1D World in 02 London. The lads have however not simply hoarded their millions as they also featured in a second Rich List league table, for leading charity donors.
Their Comic Relief single One Way or Another (Teenage Kicks) has shot to the top of the charts in 60 countries and hit 330,000 sales in the UK alone.
