One Direction may still be teenagers but they are worth a fortune, after less than two years in existence. One Direction shot to fame after appearing on the UK version of X Factor in 2010; the irony of their subsequent fortune, of course, is that they didn’t even win the contest: they came third behind Rebecca Ferguson and Matt Cardle. The revelations about the band’s fortune have come from Tom Bower’s new book about Simon Cowell, The Mirror have reported.

According to today’s report (September 20, 2012), the five young lads known as One Direction are now officially one of the UK’s most successful music groups ever. And it’s thought that the band have raked in around £200 million for Simon Cowell and Sony, on top of the vast sum of money that they have earned for themselves, too. It’s a pretty impressive story for a band that are barely out of their teens. Their eldest member, Louis Tomlinson is 21 and Harry Styles, the youngest member of the band, is still only 18. In his book, Bowen writes “One Direction were Cowell’s new Westlife – a revival of his mastery of the music business. Nothing had been left to chance by Sony Music, with the band’s hit album Up All Night selling over five million copies.”

In addition to sales of One Direction’s songs, Simon Cowell and his colleagues have managed to strike up some lucrative endorsements for the band. These include partnerships with Nokia, Hasbro toys and Pokemon games. Apparently, the boys like to splash their cash, now that they have plenty of it. Louis splashed out £2.5 million on a five bedroom pad in London and Harry’s got his own bachelor pad, as well as a number of pricey sports cars. Nice work if you can get it, eh lads?