Who Are The Most Followed Competitive Eaters?
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Competitive eating is an activity in which participants compete against each other to eat large quantities of food, usually in a short time period. Competitive eating is most popular in the United States, Canada, and Japan, but the rest of the world are starting to take notice of the trend - including the UK.
While this may all sound appealing to most foodies, it is fair to say the world of competitive eating isn’t for the faint of heart.
One thing for sure is that it is entertaining to watch, and the numbers back that up - The Annual Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest in New York attracts over 40,000 fans each year and is broadcast on ESPN to nearly two million viewers! The world of Social Media also laps up this kind of content with mega influencers posting content on a regular basis - some of which have millions of followers like Adam Moran, otherwise known as “Beard Meats Food”, a well known MLE eater from the UK.
Major League Eating (MLE) is the world governing body that oversees all professional eating contests. In their roster there are currently 50 professional competitive eaters, both men and women, who participate in the gluttonous events.
All that considered, the research team at Gambling.com decided to work out the Most Followed Competitive Eaters on Social Media. They analysed every MLE professional eater’s Social Media accounts on the following platforms - Instagram, TikTok, Facebook and YouTube, and calculated a total following before producing a Top 5 table.
So which eater is the top dog on Social Media?
Top 5 Most Followed Competitive Eaters on Social Media
Matt Stonie, from the famous ‘Sin City’ of Las Vegas, is the king of Social Media by some distance with more than 21 m followers across all his accounts! Although his numbers are consistently impressive across the board, he was particularly dominant on YouTube where he has over 16 m subscribers, nearly 13 m more so than his nearest eating rival.
In runner-up was Eric “The Badlands” Booker, from New York, with more than 7.5 m total followers. He had the second highest following on YouTube and Instagram but came top in the TikTok category. Fun fact: Eric Booker is not only a professional competitive eater on the MLE roster, but he is also a rapper! If you don’t believe me, check out his YouTube channel!
Also making the podium is the UK’s very own, Adam “Beard Meats Food” Moran, with a combined following of over 4 m followers. He was the king in this Facebook category with over 1 m followers, narrowly beating the overall leader, Matt Stonie.
In fourth place was Joey Chestnut, the undisputed king of competitive eating with 55 world food records (including 77 hot dogs in 10 mins! Yes, you read that right), while Japan’s Max Suzuki came in fifth place.
These Competitive Eaters Can Earn the Most on Social Media
With their huge influence online, it goes without saying that professional eaters can make a ton of money from the content they post. It is well known that social media influencers/personalities in every industry actively encourage maximum engagement on their posts such as likes, shares, comments to grow their influence and brand marketing potential. In turn, they often use their influence to attract commercial sponsorships from branded partners to gain revenue.
The research team calculated which competitive eater can earn the most on social media. They found Eric “The Badlands” Booker has the highest estimated potential earnings per post on both TikTok and Instagram - £7,404 to be exact. Not far behind in second place was Matt Stonie with an estimated total earning of £7,376.
Methodology
In order to work out the Top 5 Most Followed Competitive Eaters on Social Media, Gambling.com did the following for every MLE eater:
- Compiled Instagram Following
- Compiled Twitter Following
- Compiled Facebook Following
- Compiled TikTok Following
A total following for each MLE eater was then calculated - with MLE eaters ranked from top to bottom for a top 5.
In order to work out Which Competitive Eaters Can Earn the Most on Social Media, Gambling.com did the following for every MLE eater:
- Entered every Eater’s Instagram account name into an Instagram Influencer Earnings Calculator
- Entered every Eater’s TikTok followers into a TikTok Influencer Earnings Calculator
All data was collected on Aug 8, 2023.
Data sources: Major League Eating,The Leap, Influencer Marketing Hub.
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Updated by
Marc Sibbons
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