Would You Eat It? The Ridiculously Big Instant Ramen That Mukbang YouTubers Made Popular Sells Out Everywhere In Korea
How much is too much ramen? An instant ramen that serves eight people has recently become very popular—selling out in convenience stores and increasing ramen sales.
GS25, a convenience store chain in Korea, released the Jumbo Lunch Box on May 31. The Jumbo Lunch Box is a huge instant ramen that weighs 729 grams, which is 8.5 times more than the existing Paldo Lunch Box. Inside the Jumbo Lunch Box are eight ramen noodles, three seasoning packets, and two flakes packets. 2.2 liters of boiling water is needed.
Since its launch, the ramen has gone viral through social media, and many people have started to post themselves eating it. GS25 discovered that from the release date to June 18, there were over 15,000 Instagram posts about the Jumbo Lunch Box and 500 videos on YouTube.
Famous mukbanger Heebab filmed a video of her trying out the Jumbo Lunch Box challenge “by popular demand.” With the title, “Can I eat the Jumbo Lunch Box in 20 minutes?” the video gained over 1.1 million views in just ten days.
Even Short Mouth Sun, the mukbang YouTuber who appears on tvN‘s Amazing Saturday, tried the challenge—with a twist. She had a whole pork cutlet along with the huge ramen.
The ramen costs ₩8,500 KRW (about $6.49 USD), and it has become a delicacy that people can’t purchase even if they want to. Within three days of its launch, all 50,000 supplies were sold out in the GS25 convenience stores, and most of the 30,000 additional orders were sold out—in short, the ramen has achieved 80,000 cumulative sales in just 20 days.
According to GS25, the number of members who subscribed to the convenience store’s mobile app “Our Neighborhood GS” increased by 48.2% compared to the same period in the previous month. In the app, “Jumbo Lunch Box” topped the search word list, being searched more than 1.6 million times, setting the highest record since the popularity and release of the Pokemon bread.
The Jumbo Lunch Box didn’t just set records for GS25 but also drove sales in the entire cup noodle category—in the three-week data from May 31 to June 18, sales of the total cup noodle category increased by 40.6% compared to the same period last year. In response to the popularity, a GS official said they will make the ramen a “regular product.”
We plan to convert the Jumbo Lunch Box, a limited product, into a regular product and gradually increase the supply… Many people were curious about and liked the Jumbo Lunch Box, which became known through popular mukbang content, and we will continue to develop unique products to capture our customers’ hearts.
— Lee Jin Woo, a GS25 official
Would you try this Jumbo Lunch Box?
