With more in common than just their first names, Justin Timberlake and Justin Bieber are two of pop’s most iconic male singers, the mere mention of which have fans going wild. But which Justin is more popular?
Both Justin Timberlake and Justin Bieber have huge fan bases, albeit from different generations. Whilst popularity is ultimately subjective, Bieber does have almost three times the number of Instagram followers than Timberlake. However, according to YouGov, Timberlake is the 71st most popular music artist, whilst Bieber ranked at 223rd.
Read on to learn more about the stars’ social media popularity, commercial successes, and their appearances in Hollywood.
Social Media
With social media such an important part of growing and maintaining a fan base these days, no popularity comparison would be complete without diving into some social media statistics.
Social media was Bieber’s first platform and he rose to fame after being discovered on YouTube. There’s really no question of his superior popularity where social media is concerned, with Timberlake cultivating a smaller presence online.
As for the numbers, Bieber has by far the bigger audience on Twitter with 112.2 million followers, second only to Barack Obama. He’s also been ranked as the 7th most influential man on the platform.
As for Timberlake, he has roughly half the number of followers, with a respectable 64.3 million.
Instagram is a similar story and Justin Bieber is the 10th most followed Instagram account with 141 million followers. Once again, Timberlake trails behind with a still massive 59.1 million followers. Not quite enough to challenge Bieber however.
You get the idea, but just to reiterate, Bieber also has a phenomenal 20,644,089,453 views on his YouTube channel, whilst Timberlake has a huge, but not quite so huge, 4,830,641,946 views.
Commercial Success
How do they rank against each other in terms of sales? Both Justins have achieved phenomenal commercial success over their careers.
But while Timberlake has certified sales of 10.5 million albums to date, Justin Bieber creeps ahead with 19.5 million, according to the RIAA.
That being said, Timberlake’s illustrious career has seen him win a slew of awards, including 10 Grammy Awards, 3 Brit Awards, and 7 American Music Awards, whilst Bieber has won only 1 Grammy Award, as a featured artist, 2 Brit Awards, but 12 American Music Awards.
Hollywood
Borth artists have ventured into Hollywood, but how do they compare?
Since 2008, Timberlake has forged a career as an actor, doing both voice roles for animated films, and being cast as the leading man. Some of his most popular films have been enormously successful such as ‘Friends with Benefits’, which grossed over $149 million at box office and won the star a nomination for a Teen Choice Award, and ‘Trouble with the Curve’.
Whilst Bieber’s no stranger to films, the majority of his appearances have been as part of documentaries about his and his musical peers’ careers, such as ‘Justin Bieber: Never Say Never’.
Bieber has made a couple of further cameo appearances, but Timberlake has clearly found superior popularity in the film industry.
Who Takes the Crown?
According to YouGov, Justin Bieber is the 223rd most popular music artist, whilst Justin Timberlake climbs ahead, ranking at 71st most popular, but it really depends on how you choose to compare their successes.
It feels unfair to pit the two against each other, given their incredible individual combinations.
Bieber’s manager Scooter Braun told MTV News in 2012 what he thought of comparisons between the pair: “a compliment of that nature is something that we embrace, but at the same time I think it’s the easy comparison”, adding “and I think the two of them feel that way.”
Watch Justin Bieber show his appreciation for Timberlake by covering one of his songs in the YouTube video below.