Why Koreans Love Watching Others Binge Eat

Michelle Ruzzene

Updated 24 March 2015 at 7:53 pm

Rachel Ahn is an internet star for her gorging abilities. Photo: YouTube.

In Australia, it’s all about renovation and cooking shows.

But in Korea, it’s all about watching people binge eat. Seriously.

Streaming yourself chowing down a meal for six, known as mukbang, has become so popular that the best devourers have achieved celebrity status.

One such star is Rachel Ahn, who has more than 12,000 subscribers on YouTube.

She also broadcasts from AfreecaTV, which is like a South Korean version of YouTube, where more than 1000 viewers every night tune in to watch her gorge on various cuisines.

The stream runs from 9pm local time until around midnight, where the 19-year-old devours her food similar to a toddler – lots of loud chewing with her mouth open, slurping, burping and the obligatory sauce all around her mouth.

The teen says she makes more money from her gluttonous episodes than she does from her day job.

Ahn says a lot of her female fans enjoy the chance to watch someone else overindulge without ingesting the calories themselves.

"Viewers who watch my mukbang are on a diet," she told NPR. "So you call this a sort of gratification through others."

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