(Katrillion) -- They've crunched the numbers, and now the folks at Forbes magazine are declaring that the Backstreet Boys are one notch above *NSYNC.

In the magazine's annual list of the year's 100 most powerful celebrities, teen-friendly pop stars made a good showing: Both boy bands, as well as teen queen Britney Spears, made it to the top 10.

Britney arrived at No. 4, Backstreet at No. 7 and *NSYNC at No. 8. The only other musical act to break the top 10 were the Beatles, who topped Britney at No. 3 thanks to the success of their recent greatest hits album.

Still, none of them could hold a candle to actor Tom Cruise, who clocked in at No. 1.

Stars were ranked based on earnings, web hits, press clips, magazine covers and other measurements of fame.

Check out Forbes' research on teen pop's royalty:

Britney Spears

Money rank: 16

Earnings: $38.5 million

Web hits: 981,000

Press clips: 19,607

Magazine covers: 5

Backstreet Boys

Money rank: 20

Earnings: $35.5 mil

Web hits: 619,000

Press clips: 11,666

Magazine covers: 3

*NSYNC

Money rank: 14

Earnings: $42 million

Web hits: 391,000

Press clips: 12,506

Magazine covers: 5

-- Latoya Hunter