Koreans' favorite YouTubers: Tzuyang and Kwaktube

Mukbang eating shows' enduring popularity in Korea confirmed in favorite YouTuber survey

A screen capture of Tzuyang eating food on her YouTube channel (YouTube)

Eating and travel shows are a big hit among Koreans on YouTube, with "mukbang" YouTuber Tzuyang being the most popular, followed by travel YouTuber Kawktube, a survey showed Thursday.

In a poll conducted by Gallup Korea from March to April, involving 1,777 respondents aged 13 and older, Tzuyang topped the list with 5.2 percent choosing her as their favorite YouTuber. Kwaktube of the eponymous travel YouTube channel secured second place with 4 percent.

All YouTubers in the top five of the list were creators of either eating or travel content.

Mukbang creators Hamzy and Heebab ranked third and fourth with 2.4 percent and 2.2 percent, respectively. Another popular travel YouTuber, Pani Bottle, came in fifth with 2.1 percent.

However, the favorite YouTuber list did not necessarily align with their respective channel’s subscriber counts.

As of June 2024, while Tzuyang boasted over 10 million subscribers to her channel, Hamzy’s surpassed hers with 12.7 million. Heebab, another mukbang specialist, had 1.6 million subscribers. Although Kwaktube ranked second in popularity, the channel had 2 million subscribers, fewer than Pani Bottle's 2.24 million.

A screencapture of South Korean travel YouTuber Kwak Joon-bin on his YouTube channel (YouTube)

By No Kyung-min(minmin@heraldcorp.com)