Netflix’s brand-new action thriller has come out of nowhere to become the biggest movie on streaming worldwide. Netflix has released some gigantic action movies in 2026 so far. Alan Ritchson’s War Machine (which blended action with sci-fi) dominated on streaming for weeks after its release, while Ben Affleck and Matt Damon’s The Rip was a major success, and Apex brought back the classic survival action thriller for a modern audience. Then, of course, there’s the staggering success of KPop: Demon Hunters, which, while technically released in 2025, hasn’t shown any signs of slowing down on the streaming charts. However, all of those movies have big stars or IP at their backs. But Netflix’s latest action thriller sensation has defied the odds to become the biggest streaming hit worldwide.
After just two full days on streaming (the film debuted on Aug. 21), Netflix’s Facing El Chapo is the biggest movie in the world on streaming. El Chapo has been the subject of many true crime docs and dramatizations on Netflix, like the docuseries El Chapo, and Narcos: Mexico, but Netflix’s latest film puts a more action-heavy spin on the crime lord’s story. The movie stars Alfonso Herrera and Noe Hernandez as two cops who pull a car over on a routine stop. But in the car sits none other than El Chapo. After arresting the crime boss, the two must survive until the end of their shift, as the entire weight of his criminal empire comes crashing down on them. While much of the film is fictionalized and dramatized, it is based on true events.
‘Facing El Chapo’ Is an Unexpected Streaming Sensation
Netflix’s true crime docs tend to perform well. But for a low-budget action thriller to race to the top of the streaming charts on the biggest streaming platform in the world is incredible. After two full days on streaming, Facing El Chapo is the number one movie on the global streaming charts. It pushed the new horror movie, The Last House, down into second place. But Facing El Chapo‘s success story gets even crazier. The film didn’t receive any grand marketing push from the streaming platform. It is purely from word-of-mouth/social media reviews and organic interest from Netflix users that has pushed the movie to the top.
‘Facing El Chapo’ Doesn’t Even Have a Rotten Tomatoes Score
Whether you trust Rotten Tomatoes’ ratings or not, all of Netflix’s big hits tend to get flooded with reviews before or during their initial streaming run. But Facing El Chapo didn’t even get that. For a Tomatometer score to be generated, at least seven recognized critics have to submit reviews. But, in a record first, not a single critic has published a review of Facing El Chapo, meaning there is no RT score. As fewer than 50 RT users have written their own reviews, the site cannot even generate a Popcornmeter score (the more reliable of the two metrics). As the film continues finding success on streaming, expect a Rotten Tomatoes user score to be generated in the coming days.
