Korean YouTube Variety Shows by the Numbers (2026)

Ask a Korean friend what variety show they’re watching and there’s a good chance the answer is a YouTube channel, not a TV network. Shows like Pinggyego, Salon Drip and Workman never appear in a broadcast schedule, yet the hosts and producers behind them are some of the biggest names in Korean TV.

This guide puts numbers on that shift, as of October 2026: app usage surveys, subscriber and view counts read straight off channel pages, and the Baeksang award record. Mukbang channels and the restaurants they visit have their own guide, Korean mukbang YouTubers and the Seoul restaurants you can visit. Here we stick to talk, sketch comedy and job-swap shows, what Koreans call 웹예능 (web variety).

How much time do Koreans spend on YouTube?

About 114 billion minutes a month, more than any other app in the country. According to app analytics firm WiseApp·Retail, as reported by Korea Duty Free News, YouTube averaged 114.0 billion minutes a month from January to November 2025. KakaoTalk came second with 32.4 billion, then Instagram (27.9 billion) and Naver (19.1 billion). The Netflix app was eighth at 5.7 billion.

YouTube on its own logs more time than the next three apps put together (79.4 billion minutes). Nothing changed in 2026. The Korea Economic Daily reported that WiseApp’s January–May 2026 figures had YouTube at 113.6 billion minutes a month, about 20 times Netflix (5.61 billion), the runner-up among video and music subscription apps, and 26.4% more than in the same months of 2022.

Totals that big are hard to picture. So we divided each app’s total time by the monthly active users WiseApp published alongside it. These per-user figures are rough estimates from simple division, not numbers WiseApp released.

📱 Total time and per-user time by app (January–November 2025 monthly averages, calculated from WiseApp·Retail figures)

That works out to about 40 hours a month for the average YouTube user, or roughly 1 hour 20 minutes a day. KakaoTalk is opened far more often (76.1 billion launches a month against YouTube’s 14.9 billion), but people pop in and out of a chat app.

The two-year trend points the same way. WiseApp’s October 2023 figures, reported by Digital Today, were 104.4 billion minutes for YouTube, 31.9 billion for KakaoTalk and 22.2 billion for Naver. YouTube has grown and Naver has shrunk.

Is YouTube more popular than KakaoTalk in Korea?

On time spent, clearly yes. On number of users, the surveys disagree. In WiseApp’s January–November 2025 averages, KakaoTalk had slightly more monthly users (48.23 million) than YouTube (46.78 million). IGAWorks’ Mobile Index, on the other hand, put YouTube first for the first half of 2025, with 47.68 million users against KakaoTalk’s 46.11 million, according to Consumer Times.

The two firms use different panels and estimation methods, so neither is “wrong”. The fair summary: almost every smartphone user in Korea has both apps, the two trade first place on users, and YouTube is ahead several times over on time.

Among video apps the gap is much wider. Mobile Index’s January 2026 estimates, reported by Newstap, had YouTube at 49.28 million monthly users, Netflix at 15.92 million, Coupang Play at 7.81 million and TVING at 7.14 million.

What are the most popular Korean variety channels on YouTube?

By subscribers, producer Na Young-seok’s Channel Fullmoon leads with 7.6 million. The chart below shows the subscriber count on each channel page on October 29, 2026. YouTube rounds these to three significant figures, and they move a little every day.

Ranking by subscribers alone is a little misleading, because these channels make very different things. If you’re new to Korean web variety, it helps to sort them into five rough types.

🎬 Five kinds of Korean web variety (subscribers from channel pages, October 29, 2026)

The biggest single videos show where web variety gets its reach. These are the view counts shown in each channel’s popular videos list on October 29, 2026, rounded by YouTube.

The two biggest are idol episodes: Channel Fullmoon’s trip with HYBE artists and Lee Young-ji’s sit-down with two members of Seventeen. But Punghyanggo, Pinggyego and Short Box all reached around 20 million without one.

Why do web variety shows get more views per video than TV channels?

TV networks upload huge numbers of short clips, while web variety channels make fewer, longer episodes. The networks’ YouTube channels actually have more subscribers. At the same time on October 29, MBCentertainment had 9.21 million, SBS Entertainment 7.52 million and KBS Entertain 5.71 million. Divide total views by number of videos, though, and the picture flips.

DdeunDdeun has 451 videos and 1.28 billion total views, an average of about 2.85M per video. MBCentertainment has more than 115,000 videos and 19.4 billion views, about 170,000 each. Short Box, with 353 videos and just over 2 billion views, averages about 5.69 million.

This isn’t a popularity ranking. A network cuts each broadcast into dozens of few-minute clips, so its average per video is bound to be low. What the numbers do show is the web variety model: make fewer episodes and get each one watched for longer. How the networks themselves use YouTube is covered in Korean TV channels explained.

Why do Korean celebrities and TV producers have YouTube channels?

Because proven TV talent moved somewhere without broadcast slots or runtime limits. Web variety isn’t only for new creators. Many of today’s biggest channels were built by producers and hosts who made their names on network and cable TV.

• Na Young-seok moved from KBS to CJ ENM in 2013, and Channel Fullmoon opened in May 2019. He won Best Male Variety Performer at the 60th Baeksang Arts Awards in 2024.
• Kim Tae-ho, the MBC producer behind Infinite Challenge, announced he was leaving in 2021 and set up his company TEO in 2022. The TEO channel (opened January 2022) makes Jang Do-yeon’s Salon Drip. The Korea Herald described TEO’s Jigu Mabul World Travel as bringing a YouTube formula to TV reality.
• Yoo Jae-suk, network TV’s best-known host, fronts Pinggyego on DdeunDdeun, which opened in October 2022. The same channel’s Punghyanggo won the Baeksang Best Variety Show in 2025.
• Shin Dong-yup hosts the drinking-table talk show Jjanhan Hyung, launched in August 2023.

Traffic goes the other way too. Jangbbijju (3.39M subscribers) started as a YouTube animation channel and became the source for the TV drama Shinbyeong. A story that grows on YouTube can already make the jump to TV.

Did a YouTube show win the Baeksang Arts Awards?

Yes, twice: Best Variety Show in the TV category in 2023 and 2025. The Baeksang Arts Awards are Korea’s main awards covering both TV and film. YouTube shows have been nominated alongside network variety and have taken the top variety prize.

🏆 YouTube shows in the Baeksang TV Best Variety Show category, 2023–2026

One mix-up to avoid: Pinggyego has never won a Baeksang grand prize. The channel holds its own year-end “Pinggyego Awards” (three editions posted as of October 2026), and that video alone has about 19 million views, which is probably where the confusion comes from.

Other awards are harder to enter. The Blue Dragon Series Awards only consider OTT originals, so YouTube variety isn’t eligible. Whether 2026’s lack of YouTube nominees at the Baeksang is a blip will be clearer when next year’s list comes out. For the TV side of the story, see Korean variety shows by the numbers.

Can you watch Korean YouTube variety shows with English subtitles?

It depends on the channel and the episode, so check the CC menu on each video. When we opened the channels with YouTube set to English on October 29, 2026, DdeunDdeun, Workman, Jjanhan Hyung, TEO (Salon Drip), MMTG and Channel Fullmoon all showed English video titles, which means the channels have added title translations. Some of Lee Young-ji’s episodes list languages in the title, such as “(ENG/JPN/SPA/IND)”. Psick Univ and Short Box mostly use Korean titles.

What can you do in Seoul?

The easiest thing is to visit places where Workman filmed. Web variety isn’t recorded in front of a studio audience the way network shows are, so what’s left for travelers is the locations. The list below only includes places named in Workman’s official video titles as of October 29, 2026. There’s no guarantee the shop or area in a video looks the same now, so treat these as good places to go in their own right.

Han River park convenience stores

The setting for Workman’s night-shift convenience store episode, posted in October 2026 (2.3M views). Instant ramyeon at a Han River convenience store is a favorite with locals too. To choose a park, see Seoul’s Han River parks compared.

Lotte World (Jamsil)

Workman cleaned Lotte World before opening and climbed the 123 floors of Lotte World Tower’s stairs. Lotte World Adventure and the tower stand side by side at Jamsil Station.

📍 Open in Naver Map

Noryangjin Fish Market

The backdrop to the winter yellowtail episode. You can browse the market and eat raw fish in one stop.

📍 Open in Naver Map

LoL PARK (Jonggak)

Workman has a LoL PARK part-time job episode and one as LCK Finals staff. How to watch a match is in the LCK and PC bang culture guide.

📍 Open in Naver Map

Korean Folk Village (Yongin)

There’s an episode featuring Chuu. It’s in Yongin, Gyeonggi Province, not Seoul, so plan for half a day.

📍 Open in Naver Map