Harry Styles has been named the previous member of One Direction who saw the most support from fans online, according to a Twitter sentiment analysis.

The research, conducted as part of the Self-Made Celebs study, showed that Harry Styles saw a higher influx of positive tweets from fans over the last five years, compared to former bandmates Liam Payne, Louis Tomlinson, Niall Horan and Zayn Malik.

However, when it comes to interactions with online articles written about the band, the sentiment analysis revealed that Louis Tomlinson received the most ‘love’ emoji reactions, suggesting his fans are also eager to show their support for the star on social media.

The Twitter sentiment analysis was conducted on Tweets mentioning the five former bandmates over the last five years, and assigns a positivity and negativity score to each.

The band saw a massive influx of online support this time last year (23 July 2020) as the date marked ten years since the band went on hiatus, with excited fans eagerly anticipating a reunion or potential collaboration.

And with the 11 year anniversary falling today, it’s no surprise to see that fans of the band are still showing support online, both for the band and the individual members.

One Direction members ranked, based on most supportive fanbase

Harry Styles
Liam Payne
Louis Tomlinson
Niall Horan
Zayn Malik
As well as showing support for the band on Twitter, fans also show support around the anniversary date by streaming the band’s music.

In fact, a recent analysis revealed that in the week following the band’s ten-year anniversary last July, One Direction’s Spotify streams increased by a staggering 159.5 million.

This year, the band reported an impressive 533 million Spotify streams on their debut single – What Makes You Beautiful – which translates to $2,329,984 (£1,694,399) in earnings.

That’s based on the latest streaming earnings data from Spotify, which currently places each stream at a value of $0.00437 (0.0034p).

And when it comes to which fanbase supports the former 1D members through online searches, ahrefs data shows Harry Styles saw the most global search volume (5.1 million), followed by Louis Tomlinson (1.4 million) and Zayn Malik (1.2 million).

Peter Bennett, Head of Brand Marketing at fair casino PlayOJO, comments on the analysis: “Although it’s clear that all the artists featured in the analysis are hugely supported by their fanbases, it is interesting to see how online sentiment varies from person to person.

“It’s also encouraging to see that the majority of interactions around the artists on Twitter are positive – particularly given the volatile nature of online forums.”

As well as looking at online sentiment, the study compared the background of the high-earning youngsters to that of the average celeb featured on Forbes 30 Under 30 lists, to see if the stars had a high likelihood of success, or if they worked to beat the odds.

Harry Styles was featured on the list, as his background proved an impressive 58% match to Forbes’ ideal star – suggesting he was always destined for fame and fortune.