Mukbang: Beyond Mountains of Food - A Dive into the Global Eating Show Phenomenon

Start hereTwitch once prohibited mukbang streams. In June 2016 it gave them a category of their own. Why do so many people want to watch someone else eat?

01Mukbang Meaning

Mukbang (먹방, meokbang) is short for 먹는 방송 (meokneun bangsong), “eating broadcast”. The National Institute of Korean Language’s open dictionary, Urimalsaem, defines it as a programme that mainly shows people eating. It notes that the word can also mean an eating scene in a drama or film.

A typical mukbang has one host eating a large meal on camera and talking to viewers, either live with a chat running alongside or in a recorded video.

02The facts, with dates

The word	먹방 meokbang, short for 먹는 방송 meokneun bangsong, “eating broadcast”
Where it started	South Korea. A 2025 research review dates the first mukbang to 2008 and its rise in popularity to 2010, on the streaming platform AfreecaTV (now called SOOP)
What a BJ is	“Broadcast jockey”, the usual name for the host. On AfreecaTV, some hosts earn money from viewers’ contributions in virtual currency
When it went global	Twitch launched a Social Eating category at the end of June 2016, reversing an earlier policy that had prohibited mukbang streams

The dates depend on what is being counted. A 2020 study used Google Trends. It found that mukbang started trending as a search term in South Korea in winter 2014 and worldwide in autumn 2014. The study therefore describes the format as originating around 2014.

The earlier dates describe the first broadcasts; the later one describes when the word took off.

03The Allure of Mukbang

Company at mealtimes

A 2025 scoping review found that easing the loneliness of eating alone is the reason mentioned most often for watching mukbang. It noted that this was particularly relevant during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Live shows make the company feel real: viewers comment, and the host answers. On AfreecaTV, hosts can often be heard naming and thanking viewers in real time when they contribute money.

Food and culture

The same review found that another common reason for watching during the pandemic was to learn about food: its taste, its nutritional value and how it is cooked. A meal is an easy way into a cuisine you have never eaten.

The sound

The chomping and chewing sounds hosts make can evoke what researchers call an autonomous sensory meridian response (ASMR). That is a pleasantly warm, tingling sensation that starts at the crown of the head and spreads down the body.

04The Dark Side of Mukbang

The research on viewers is mixed, and worth reading closely.

A 2020 study looked at YouTube comments and Reddit posts. For some viewers, watching mukbang helped them eat more, avoid binge eating or feel less lonely. For others, it motivated restrictive eating or triggered a relapse into loss-of-control eating.

The authors summed up the comments as “simultaneously useful and hurtful”.

A questionnaire study has found a positive relationship between problematic mukbang watching and binge-eating or purging tendencies. That is an association: it does not show which comes first.

05The serious part

Some of the risks are in the news, not only in studies.

Dongz Apatan, a mukbang vlogger from Iligan City in the Philippines, died in June 2024 after a hemorrhagic stroke. He was reportedly rushed to hospital after a mukbang session.

In July 2024 the country’s health secretary said the Department of Health was considering a ban on mukbang videos. The department’s spokesperson said it would not ban them immediately.

Chen Ziyi, a Chinese mukbang streamer known online as Yingying, with more than one million followers, died on 17 August 2026, aged 24, according to her parents.

In her last video, posted on 14 August, she said she was in hospital because her blood potassium had fallen as low as 2.3. She put it down largely to her work as a mukbanger and a long-term habit of making herself vomit. Her parents’ announcement did not give a cause of death.

What a doctor pointed to. A doctor at Zhejiang Hospital told the Global Times that binge eating itself does not directly cause severe potassium loss. The main risks, the doctor said, are inducing vomiting and using laxatives, which some mukbangers do off camera to keep their figures. Researchers list vomiting and laxative misuse among the compensatory behaviours of disordered eating.

What governments have done

South Korea, 2018. On 26 July 2018 the Ministry of Health and Welfare published a package of anti-obesity measures. One sentence in the 12-page report said it planned to “develop a guideline and create a monitoring system for advertisements and media that encourage overeating”.

A ministry official said there would be no punishment for those who did not comply. The plan still drew petitions on the presidential website, and an opposition leader called it “statism”.

China, 2021. Food waste is the concern China wrote into law. The Law on Food Waste was adopted on 29 April 2021. Article 22 says “the production, release, and dissemination of competitive eating and binge-eating programs or audios and videos on food wasting shall be banned”.

A broadcaster or online video service can be fined between RMB 10,000 and RMB 100,000 (Article 30). That applies if it refuses to correct a breach, or where the circumstances are serious.

The Philippines, 2024. The Department of Health considered a ban after Dongz Apatan’s death, as above.

If food feels like a problem for you. Watching this content is not itself a disorder, but if you recognise bingeing or purging in your own life, that is worth talking to a doctor about. Eating disorders are serious and can be life-threatening, and with treatment most people can recover.

If you are struggling or thinking about suicide, please reach out now. findahelpline.com lists free, confidential helplines worldwide. In the US and Canada, call or text 988. In the UK and Ireland, call Samaritans on 116 123. In Australia, call Lifeline on 13 11 14. In India, call Tele-MANAS on 14416. In the Philippines, call the National Center for Mental Health crisis line on 1800-1888-1553 (or 1553 from a Luzon landline). If you are in immediate danger, call your local emergency number.

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How we checked this · Last checked October 2026

• The meaning comes from the National Institute of Korean Language's open dictionary. The dates, motives and research findings come from a 2025 scoping review and a 2020 study, both read in full text.
• Twitch's 2016 change was read in an archived copy of the Tubefilter report. China's law was read in the National People's Congress English text; South Korea's 2018 plan in two Korean press reports, not in the ministry's own report.
• The deaths were re-read in October 2026 in the PEP.ph and Mothership reports. No official cause of death has been given for Chen Ziyi; one report passes on a friend's guess, which this page does not use.
• Figures and regulations are as they stood in September 2026.

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09Sources