Wasn't it Baek Jong-won? The Most Loved Korean YouTuber is the 'Mukbang Goddess'

Most in the Top 10 Are 'Mukbang·Travel'

Mukbang YouTuber Tzuyang (real name Park Jung-won) was chosen as the most favorite YouTuber among Koreans. The top preferred YouTubers, including Tzuyang, were mainly found to present 'mukbang' and 'travel' content.

On the 19th, Korea Gallup announced that in a survey conducted from March 22 to April 5 among 1,777 people aged 13 and older nationwide except Jeju, Tzuyang ranked first in the 'most favorite YouTuber' category with 5.2% support.

[Photo by Tzyang Instagram capture]

The second place was taken by travel YouTuber 'GwakTube', chosen by 4.0%. Following were 'Hamzy' (2.4%), 'Hibap' (2.2%), and 'Ppanibottle' (2.1%) in the top five, with 'Kim Chang-ok' (1.7%), 'Baek Jong-won' (1.5%), 'Lee Gong-sam' (1.2%), 'Kim Eo-jun' (1.1%), and 'Kim Pro' (0.9%) entering the top ten.

The main content areas of the top preferred YouTubers among Koreans were mainly 'mukbang' and 'travel'. Tzuyang, the number one preferred YouTuber, along with Hamzy, Hibap, and Lee Gong-sam, mainly upload mukbang content, while GwakTube and Ppanibottle are travel-specialized YouTubers. Baek Jong-won provides content covering domestic and international food culture, including food, restaurant management, and travel. Additionally, Kim Chang-ok runs lectures, Kim Eo-jun operates a current affairs channel, and Kim Pro mainly uploads short shorts videos.

The preference survey results of this study did not correlate with the number of channel subscribers. Among the top ten, the YouTuber with the most subscribers was Kim Pro, who ranked 10th with a 0.9% preference. As of June 2024, Kim Pro's channel has 41.1 million subscribers. On the other hand, Kim Chang-ok had the fewest subscribers among the top ten with 1.41 million but ranked 6th with a 1.7% preference.

These results were analyzed to be influenced by factors such as the nature of the content, domestic and international subscriber distribution, and activities outside the YouTube ecosystem such as media and broadcast exposure.

Meanwhile, this survey collected responses by free answer, asking for only one favorite YouTuber per respondent, and as a result, about 300 YouTubers (41%) received less than 0.9% of responses. This showed how diverse the tastes of YouTube users are.

Also, four out of ten respondents said they 'do not have a particularly favorite YouTuber' or 'do not know,' with the percentages by age group being 21% for teenagers, 34% for people in their 40s, and 65% for those aged 60 and above, indicating that the older the age, the higher the percentage.