The 22 Biggest Boy Bands of All Time: One Direction, ‘NSync, Backstreet Boys and More

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The 22 Biggest Boy Bands of All Time: One Direction, ‘NSync, Backstreet Boys and More

When you think of boy bands, you probably reminisce on the 1990s. However, all-male groups have been around since as early as the ‘60s. Many consider The Beatles to be the first boy band, and the success of John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr and George Harrison led to the creation of The Monkees, The Osmonds, The Jackson 5 and many other groups throughout the ‘60s and ‘70s. By the time the ‘80s rolled around, fans were introduced to Menudo and New Kids on the Block, but the following decade arguably changed the game forever. In the ‘90s, NKOTB continued to take off but ultimately stepped aside as more pop-oriented groups began to dominate the market. The Backstreet Boys became household names in 1996, followed by ’NSync in 1998 and LFO in 1999. Despite being compared throughout their careers, Joey Fatone exclusively told Us Weekly in January 2019 that ‘NSync had no issues with Backstreet Boys. “There was never a rivalry, but it was always like, ‘Damn, they got to do that. Man, I want to do that,’” he reminisced. “I mean, ‘I Want It That Way’ is a jam. I don’t mind saying it.” [jwplayer ZNO3L0f0-zhNYySv2] Fatone revealed that “Bye Bye Bye,” however, is superior to “Everybody (Backstreet’s Back)” when it comes to the battle of the boy bands’ iconic dance routines. “’Bye Bye Bye’ dance, definitely, because everybody only knows that one thing from ‘Everybody,’ and everybody at least knows the whole neck thing,” he told Us. “So, I would honestly say ‘Bye Bye Bye’ – not because I was in the song – because obviously if it was ‘Everybody,’ I’d give props, but it’s not.” Following the success of ‘NSync and the Backstreet Boys, there was a resurgence of boy bands in the early 2010s as One Direction, The Wanted and others hit the scene. Around the same time, New Kids on the Block and the Backstreet Boys briefly joined forces to form the supergroup NKOTBSB, which released one compilation album and toured North America, Europe, Asia and Australia. Boy bands also became incredibly popular in Asia, where groups such as BTS and EXO amassed massive fan bases. To date, the Backstreet Boys remain the most popular boy band of all time in terms of sales. One Direction also broke numerous records during their six-year run, which ended in 2016 as Harry Styles, Niall Horan, Louis Tomlinson and Liam Payne went solo (Zayn Malik had already left the group a year prior). While blasting hits like “Bye Bye Bye,” “What Makes You Beautiful” and “I Want It That Way,” scroll through the gallery below for more on the 22 biggest boy bands of all time!

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BTS

The Korean pop boy band formed in 2010. The group, which includes seven members — Jin, Suga, J-Hope, RM, Jimin, V and Jungkook — released their debut single, “2 Cool 4 Skool,” in 2013.

They have released over a dozen albums, including two records in 2020, Map of the Soul and Be, and several additional Japanese-language albums. They headlined five tours between 2014 and 2019, with their sixth venture, Map of the Soul Tour, canceled amid the coronavirus pandemic. The men have won American Music Awards, Billboard Music Awards and were nominated for two Grammys.

During their annual anniversary celebration live stream in June 2022, BTS announced an extended hiatus days after releasing their anthology album Proof. They planned to take time to rest and work on solo music with the intention of eventually coming back together.

Jimin explained at the time, “We’ve come to think about what kind of artists we each want to be remembered as [by] our fans. I think that’s why we’re going through a rough patch right now. We’re trying to find our identity and that’s an exhausting and long process.”

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One Direction

After nabbing third place on The X Factor UK's seventh season, Niall Horan, Zayn Malik, Liam Payne, Harry Styles and Louis Tomlinson caught their rising star. Their debut American single, "What Makes You Beautiful," went Platinum, and their first U.S. tour sold out within hours. They went on to release four albums as a fivesome: 2011's Up All Night, 2012's Take Me Home, 2013's Midnight Memories and 2014's Four. After Malik left the group in 2015, One Direction treated fans to one last album, Made in the A.M., before going solo.

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The Wanted

Adding to the U.S.'s Irish-British invasion, Max George, Siva Kaneswaran, Jay McGuiness, Tom Parker and Nathan Sykes hit the ground running a year prior to One Direction making it big. Their most popular hit in the U.S., "Glad You Came," peaked at No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100. The group released three albums and had their own reality show, The Wanted Life, before taking a hiatus in 2014. In March 2022, news broke that Parker died after being diagnosed with a brain tumor two years prior. He was 33.

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Jonas Brothers

Kevin Jonas, Joe Jonas and Nick Jonas hit the scene in 2006 with their debut, It’s About Time, which they followed up with 2007’s Jonas Brothers. In 2008, they starred in the Disney Channel movie Camp Rock and released a third album, A Little Bit Longer. After their fourth effort, 2009’s Lines, Vines and Trying Times, got mixed reviews, they went on hiatus and eventually split over “creative differences.” The brothers reunited in 2019, when they released their comeback record, Happiness Begins, and went back on the road.

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Backstreet Boys

The Florida-based group rose to fame in 1996 with their self-titled album and have worked together ever since, releasing 1999’s Millennium, 2000’s Black & Blue, 2005’s Never Gone, 2007’s Unbreakable, 2009’s This Is Us, 2013’s In a World Like This and 2019’s DNA. AJ McLean, Howie Dorough, Nick Carter, Kevin Richardson (who left the band in 2006 before returning in 2012) and Brian Littrell have sold more than 100 million records worldwide, making them the most successful boy band of all time. They received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2013.

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'NSync

Sharing the same home base and record label as the Backstreet Boys, Justin Timberlake, Chris Kirkpatrick, Joey Fatone, Lance Bass and JC Chasez formed ‘NSync (an acronym for the last letter of each member's first name, with Lance being called "Lansten") in 1995. After releasing game-changers like 2000’s No Strings Attached, they ended their run as a boy band in 2006. ‘NSync has since reunited at the 2013 MTV Video Music Awards and the 2019 Coachella music festival, where they performed with Ariana Grande.

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98 Degrees

From 1996 through 2002, Nick Lachey, Justin Jeffre, Jeff Timmons and Drew Lachey released four albums and a dozen singles. They reunited in 2012 for what was supposed to be a one-off performance but yielded another album, 2013’s 2.0, and a successful tour.

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O-Town

As the stars of MTV's first season of Making the Band, Jacob Underwood, Ashley Parker Angel, Erik-Michael Estrada, Trevor Penick and Dan Miller formed O-Town in 2000. Their first single, "Liquid Dreams,” went gold while their ballad "All or Nothing" reached No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 and was nominated for several awards. They called it quits in 2003, but reunited a decade later without Parker Angel. Since getting the band back together, they’ve dropped two more albums: 2014’s Lines & Circles and 2019’s The O.T.W.N. Album.

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LFO

The Massachusetts-based threesome (Devin Lima, Brad Fischetti and Rich Cronin) rose to fame with their popular hit "Summer Girls" in 1999. After going on a hiatus in 2003 and an attempt at making a comeback in June 2009, they announced that they were done for good. Cronin and Lima both died from cancer, in 2010 and 2018, respectively. As the last remaining member, Fischetti began touring with O-Town in 2019.

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Hanson

Brothers Isaac Hanson, Taylor Hanson and Zac Hanson put Tulsa, Oklahoma, on the map with their 1997 hit single "MMMBop" off their debut album, Middle of Nowhere. They celebrated their 25th anniversary on Good Morning America in 2017. The brothers released 13 albums between 1995 and 2020, including a holiday album called Finally It’s Christmas in 2017 and 2020’s Perennial.

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Boyzone

The U.K. version of 'NSync and the Backstreet Boys took the form of five Irishmen: Keith Duffy, Mikey Graham, Ronan Keating, Stephen Gately and Shane Lynch. After six years together, the group took a break in 2000 but reunited for a Children in Need charity concert in 2007. They continued to tour until 2009, the year that Gately died from a pulmonary oedema. As a foursome, the remaining members of Boyzone released four more albums. They are rumored to reunite again in 2024 for their 30th anniversary.

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Westlife

Simon Cowell signed the Irish quintet (Nicky Byrne, Shane Filan, Mark Feehily, Kian Egan and Brian McFadden) in 1998. Despite their huge success in the U.K., only one of their songs, "Swear It Again," made the charts in the U.S. McFadden left the group in 2004, and the remaining four held a farewell tour in 2012. However, they reunited in 2018 and released their album Spectrum the following year.

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The Moffatts

After trying to make it in the country world in the early ‘90s, Canadian brothers Scott Moffatt, Clint Moffatt, Bob Moffatt and Dave Moffatt shifted gears to pop-rock. On 1998's Chapter I: A New Beginning, the brothers started to play their own instruments. They released one more album, 200’s Submodalities, before disbanding. The Moffatts reunited a few times in the 2010s before making a comeback in 2018 with their EP Chapter II.

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New Kids on the Block

This fivesome (Donnie Wahlberg, Danny Wood, Joey McIntyre, Jordan Knight and Jonathan Knight) have been "hangin' tough" since 1984. The group's career can be broken down into two legs: 1984 to 1994 and 2008 to present day. During that 14-year hiatus, Jordan and McIntyre pursued solo careers while Wahlberg (whose younger brother is Mark Wahlberg) dabbled in acting. NKOTB toured with the Backstreet Boys from 2011 to 2012 and received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2014. The group later continued to tour, joining Boyz II Men and Paula Abdul in 2017 and a bunch of other ‘80s groups in 2019. They performed at Fenway Park in Boston in August 2021.

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Menudo

Latin superstar Ricky Martin got his start in this Spanish teen pop group, which rose to fame in the U.S. in the mid-1980s. (Martin replaced one of the original members, Ricky Melendez, in 1984 and stayed on through 1989.) During Martin's time with the group, he was joined by members Charlie Masso, Johnny Lozada, Robi "Draco" Rosa and Roy Rossello. They disbanded in 2009.

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Take That

Just like how Ricky Martin's launching point was with Menudo, Robbie Williams got his start with this hot ’90s Brit group. After he left in 1995, original members Gary Barlow, Howard Donald, Jason Orange and Mark Owen continued to release albums and toured the world. They have continued to have a successful run and even performed at the 2012 Olympic Games closing ceremony in London.

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Boyz II Men

Nathan Morris, Shawn Stockman, Wanya Morris, Michael McCary and Marc Nelson are known for their soulful a capella songs and for being one of the most successful R&B groups to date. Four years after breaking onto the scene in 1991 with their single "Motownphilly," they released their most memorable duet, "One Sweet Day" with Mariah Carey. They have been active in the music industry since the 1980s, most recently releasing an album titled Under the Streetlight in 2017. The men performed at the NFL kickoff celebration in January 2018 and sang on Dancing With the Stars the same year. They went on tour in late 2021 after dealing with COVID-19 delays. Their tour continues through 2023.

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New Edition

The late Whitney Houston's ex-husband, Bobby Brown, got his start with this group that formed in 1978 and was famous for iconic hits like "Candy Girl" and "Cool It Now." In 2011, Brown and original members Ronnie DeVoe, Ricky Bell, Michael Bivins, Ralph Tresvant and Johnny Gill made their comeback on a multi-city reunion tour. They were honored with a Walk of Fame star in 2017, the same year that BET aired a docuseries, The New Edition Story, about their career.

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The Monkees

Launching in the middle of The Beatles' career in 1966, Micky Dolenz, Peter Tork, Michael Nesmith and Davy Jones (who was the only Brit in the all-American group) starred on their eponymous NBC comedy until 1968. Post-TV career, the group continued to record albums and go on tour with various lineups. After Jones and Tork’s deaths in 2012 and 2019, respectively, Dolenz and Nesmith have continued to keep The Monkees’ legacy alive.

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The Jackson 5

Original members Jackie Jackson, Tito Jackson, Jermaine Jackson, Marlon Jackson and Michael Jackson were the voices behind iconic hits "I Want You Back" and "ABC." During their on-and-off career, which started in 1964, they sold more than 100 million records worldwide and were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1997 — 13 years after Michael left to pursue his solo career. The King of Pop died in 2009.

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The Osmonds

The Osmond Brothers began as a barbershop quartet with brothers Alan, Wayne, Merrill and Jay Osmond in the 1960s. The group expanded in the 1970s to add younger siblings Donny and Jimmy Osmond. The band grew to success in 1971 but fizzled out in 1975. Donny, however, went on to have an even bigger career when he teamed up with sister Marie Osmond. The pair have been performing together for decades and had a popular variety show called Donny & Marie until 1979. The brother and sister duo later headlined an 11-year Las Vegas residency, which wrapped in November 2019. Outside of his duet work, Donny has performed solo, as have brothers Merrill and Jay.

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The Beatles

To many, The Beatles created the original “boy band” when the four lads from Liverpool, England — John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr — rose to super stardom in the 1960s. The fab four have been regarded as one of the most influential bands of all time, releasing 12 studio album, 13 EPs and 22 singles between 1962 and 1970. They toured from 1963 to 1966 before parting ways in 1970 and embarking on solo ventures. The group, which is still the best-selling music act of all time, was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1988 and each artist was subsequently inducted on their own in the years that followed. Lennon was assassinated in December 1980, while Harrison passed away in November 2001. The remaining two members of The Beatles still tour solo and have remained friends for decades.