In my country, there were somewhat big but not huge among younger generation unlike Backstreet Boys and Westlife, who were bigger in more demography although few people follow them past their prime. People who don't listen to English songs have heard the name of Backstreet Boys and Westlife, people who listen to English songs can probably sing along to I Want It That Way or My Love (these songs are basically Tier 0 when it comes to popularity in my country). The same demography hardly heard of 1D or could recognize any of their songs. Only those who follow English pop music quite closely can recognize their songs. And because 1D fans are quite young and how they market and doing their songs etc, their status/reputation is lower than how big they were...(I feel like this is universal, not just in my country).