British English is more famous than American English though American English is gaining ground more and more. British is the Resource language that is and that should always be referred when American English is mutated with its innovative morphology and somehow wit its too tolerant semantics.
The preference is rather personal than functional because it is the language and not the external factors determining the degree of one's favoritism towards the targeted accents which is significant.
It depends on the person's preference of the language he or she wants to speak. For me, I prefer to speak American English because I used to live and study in the United States. Moreover, in research writing, it is more preferable for me to write in it.
Yes, British English is the original English; however, since the United States is the super power for its military presence around the world and it large economy, I would say American English is more popular than British English.
British English ( especially, BBC Pronunciation ) definitely is my preference. Yet, I think American English has a very widespread audience because of Hollywood film industry.
To me, British English is more preferable than American English. But there is a tendency these days to use American English much more than American English in most countries of the world.
I prefer British English but American English is preferred for research, lets figure out why? I noticed the following four main differences between British and American english:
1. The pronunciation of "ARTO" letters is different according to the letter position and the previous one, e.g bi-r-d and late-r- vs la"d"er.
2. Some words have the same or different meaning in both accents, e.g flat vs apartment and trainer(shoe) vs trainer (coach).
3. In grammar, instead of using "will" in American, British people are using "shall". Besides, In American language, we say: The band/team/police is.., in British we say: The band/team/police is/are .... In addition, British likes to use present perfect, have I ....while American likes to use simple past, Did I ...
4. Some spelling differences in "u" letter like honor (American) and honour (British), color and colour ... organize (American and British) vs organise (British). Also, "er" and "re" like meter (American) vs metre (British), liter and litre....
This is why we like American English, easier in some manners.
(The guy who is responsible about that is Noah Webstar)
English is naturally British language. I migrated to the USA and is still overspreading all over the world. Yes, the American English is gaining ground everywhere more and more. However, I would advise to have some dose of British English each week. It still keeps its taste. It remains more famous, I think.
Although there are some differences between these two, I have to mention that the most obvious one is accent which is not a matter because there are lots of different accents like Scottish, South African, Australian, ect. Having said that it is important to work on your Pronunciation instead of accent. There is ,however, word differences between them and I suggest you to learn all of them. There aren’t many of these words and tou can do it easily. Good Luck