New Honor Means 1D is here to stay

They're not all adorable smiles, perfect hair, expertly coordinated group outfits, and small, white butts — One Direction's also the top-selling recording artist of the past year. Earlier on Thursday, the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) have named One Direction the Global Recording Artists of 2013. By the numbers, the British boy band led the charts in digital downloads, music streaming, and physical CD sales in 2013 and beat out several other huge artists while they were at it. Well, bloody hell.

Not only did they beat out Justin Timberlake, Katy Perry, and Record of The Year Grammy-winner Daft Punk — IFPI created the Global Recording Artists title specifically for the boy band "due to their immense global success." Take that, JT. According to the organization's announcement:

One Direction have seen huge success with their third studio album Midnight Memories, which contained the hit singles "Best Song Ever" and "Story of My Life". The album topped the U.S. Billboard Top 200 chart, making One Direction the first group in the charts history to debut at No. 1 with its first three albums. It also topped the charts in countries from Australia to the U.K.

Impressive, huh? The music videos for "Best Song Ever" and "Story of My Life" have also raked in 200 million and 100 million views respectively on YouTube since their premieres. You might want to stop dismissing them for being a bunch of kids and allegedly dating Kendall Jenner now, because it looks like 1D is here to stay.

The rest of IFPI's list had Eminem coming in second, with JT and Bruno Mars nabbing the third and fourth spots. Other popular artists that rounded out the list were Katy Perry, P!nk, Macklemore & Ryan Lewis, Rihanna, and Daft Punk.

And just for fun, here's the "Story of My Life" music video to brighten up (or darken? hard to say) your day: