24-Year-Old Mukbang Streamer Dies Live on Stream Due to Overeating

By Spooky on July 19th, 2024 Category: News

Pan Xiaoting, a 24-year-old Chinese streamer specializing in mukbang (eating large quantities of food for viewers’ enjoyment) recently died during her livestream due to consuming too much food.

China cracked down on mukbang streams and videos in 2020, in a bid to reduce overeating and ‘shameful’ food waste, with offenders risking fines of up to 10,000 yuan ($1,400). However, mukbang streams are still incredibly popular in the Asian country, with thousands of people putting their lives at risk by stuffing their faces with insane amounts of food for views. One such streamer was Pan Xiaoting, a former waitress turned professional mukbanger, who lost her life earlier this month during one of her streams after her body just gave out due to overeating. The autopsy showed that her stomach was filled with undigested food and her abdomen was severely deformed.

Pan Xiaoting used to work as a waitress, but after watching other successful mukbang streamers make serious money and being showered with gfts by their fans just by filming themselves eating copious amounts of food, she decided to give it a try. Mukbang is a highly competitive niche, so Pan’s start was rough, as she struggled to build a following, but things started looking up when she started increasing the amounts of food she consumed.

At first, the young woman relied on mukbang streams as a side hustle, but as her viewership grew, she started looking at it as a potential career. Pan eventually quit her job and rented a house which she used as a studio for her mukbang streams, because her parents didn’t approve of her new gig because they worried about her health.

The more people watched her mukbang streams, the more Pan Xiaoting ignored her wellbeing. She came up with all sorts of extreme challenges that attracted viewers but took a toll on her body. Her parents constantly warned her about the dangers of eating too much, as did some of her own viewers who were worried that she was eating her way to an early grave. However, she always replied with “Don’t worry, I can handle it,” and a smile on her face.

Pan Xiaoting had never been the slimmest of girls, but during her mukbang streaming career, her weight soared to around 300 kilograms. She didn’t worry about it, though, instead continuing to stuff her face with food. At one point, she was hospitalized and diagnosed with gastric bleeding caused by overeating. She was treated for her condition and later discharged, and the first thing Pan did was go back to her mukbang streams.

Keeping viewers entertained for long periods of time is hard, so in recent weeks, Pan started coming up with all sorts of extreme challenges, such as eating non-stop for at least 10 hours a day or consuming over 10 kilograms of food per streaming session. Unfortunately, her body couldn’t keep up with her eating routine, and on July 14, Pan Xiaoting died live on stream.

The official cause of the 24-year-old’s death has not been made public, but according to Chinese news website Sohu, her autopsy revealed that her abdomen was severely deformed and her stomach was full of undigested food. Her death is now being used as a cautionary tale for other mukbang streamers abusing their bodies for money and attention.