The 2014 battle between SNSD and IU ended with a victory by - IU
IU 12.9%
SNSD 12.4%
I U wins by 0.5%.
2014 was the worst year for SM and if MNet did not deny IU her Grand Prize and give her a Lifetime Achievement Award, making her a Senior Singer (which would cause trouble later but that's another story) ,
KPop would have died there.
On that year, IU and SNSD were in the media the most, and IU battled EXO for the supremacy of KPop in a very serious struggle.
SNSD finally trounced its long time rival 2NE1, but after the infamous ferry incident, IU's style of music , emphasizing comfort, became popular.
SNSD made news after news, especially after the mess Jessica Jung created. As far as I remember, Jessica did the unthinkable - she posted stuff supporting SNSD's greatest rival ---- IU. (At that time IU and Krystal were friends, although they went distant after Sulli left f(x) and IU supported Sulli.)
It is like a former high exec of Coca Cola posting a picture of herself drinking loads of Pepsi Cola.
It is not known how IU (who became a Senior Singer on Dec 03, 2014) reacted to it, but it is likely that she thanked Ms. Jung privately through Krystal, since she did not want to build up any more hostility against SM . This is from 2016 but Jessica showed her reservation against SM by supporting IU, the epitome of anti-SM movement.
IF SNSD had beaten IU in the popularity poll in 2014, it might have found a new lease on life and would have once again threatened KPop's supremacy but by 2017
The stature of SNSD and IU in the KPop world had diverged significantly.
SNSD had beaten every single rival it met, Wonder Girls, Kara, 2NE1 and others too many to list. But it could not beat the one person who had so much malice and hostility against KPop, and she became SNSD's ultimate nemesis.
