Buldak Ramen Hits 10 Billion Packs Sold Worldwide

BULDAK noodle/ samyang food.

Samyang Foods says its Buldak noodle line has sold more than 10 billion packs worldwide. The company announced the milestone on Wednesday, 14 years after it first shipped the spicy noodles overseas in 2012 to Japan, Germany, and New Zealand. Total sales now reach about 7 trillion won.

The pace has picked up sharply in recent years. Buldak reached one billion packs sold in 2017, four billion in 2022, and nine billion last year. It cleared the 10 billion mark just six months later. Global sales now run at roughly two billion packs a year, or about 63 packs every second.

BULDAK noodle/ samyang food.

Buldak Bokkeummyeon, the brand's signature stir-fried ramen, launched in 2012 under Samyang Foods chairwoman Kim Jung-soo. According to the company, Kim got the idea while walking through the Myeong-dong shopping district in Seoul with her daughter and noticing how well spicy dak-galbi, a Korean stir-fried chicken dish, was selling. Early reviews called the noodles too hot to eat. The intense heat turned into the brand's identity instead, and Buldak became one of the most recognized Korean food exports in the world. It is now sold in more than 100 countries.

The brand has reshaped Samyang Foods as a business. Overseas revenue grew from 93 billion won in 2016 to 1.88 trillion won last year, about a 20-fold jump. Over the same period, the share of overseas sales in total revenue rose from 26 percent to 80 percent.

BULDAK noodle/ samyang food.

Samyang Foods now plans to treat Buldak as a global intellectual property brand rather than just a ramen product. The company is building out characters, merchandise, and digital content around it, led by a new character named PEPPO. "Passing 10 billion packs is a turning point for the next stage of the Buldak brand," a company official said. "We want to keep building its value by connecting with younger consumers around the world."