Niall Horan has overtaken Harry Styles as the most popular member of One Direction on Twitter.

The singer has racked up a massive 31 million followers, inching ahead of Styles who is followed by 30.8 million fans.

Niall Horan
Niall Horan’s popularity has grown (Chris J. Ratcliffe/PA)

Members of the boy band have taken a break from working as a group to concentrate on their solo careers, and despite much hype over Styles’ self-titled debut album, Horan seems to have overtaken him in popularity.

Horan is currently at number 15 in the UK Singles Chart with Slow Hands, while bandmate Liam Payne’s debut solo track Strip That Down is at number five.

Styles’ album is at number 38 at the moment and the group’s fourth member Louis Tomlinson also had solo success last year with Just Hold On.

Although Styles rarely tweets, Horan has been promoting his Flicker Sessions tour on social media as well as his forthcoming solo album.

Fans of the lads admitted to being surprised that Horan had amassed more Twitter followers.

Some thought that Styles’ lack of updates could have something to do with it.

Styles will walk the red carpet tonight for the premiere of Christopher Nolan’s World War II drama Dunkirk, in which he has a small acting role.