Alan Ritchson’s 106-Minute High Stakes Thriller Pulverizes Streaming as a #1 Hit

Even without Reacher, Alan Ritchson has proved to be a major draw in streaming, with his #1 Netflix hit, War Machine. In only the first half of the year, the action star’s thriller has topped the charts on the streamer and stayed there. The 106-minute thriller saw Ritchson share the screen with Dennis Quaid, Jai Courtney, and Esai Morales.

The film arrived with modest expectations, another generic-sounding action title buried under a familiar name, yet it turned into one of the streamer’s defining releases of the year. Ritchson’s performance has carried the film way past the opening weekend, and his Reacher fame also aided in War Machine’s success.

War Machine Beats Immortal Man on Streaming Charts

Alan Ritchson in War Machine | Credits: Netflix

According to Netflix’s Watch Report, Alan Ritchson’s War Machine is the most-watched movie of 2026 so far, with the film racking up over 146.9 million views. That total pushed it past a genuinely stacked field. Matt Damon and Ben Affleck’s crime thriller The Rip landed at number two with 136.1 million views, while Swapped and the KPop Demon Hunters trailed close behind with 130.8 million and 130.4 million views, respectively.

The year saw many high-budget releases, including the concluding movie finale of Cillian Murphy’s Peaky Blinders, which was the highly anticipated The Immortal Man. The show and movie were Netflix’s crown jewels for the year, but it ranked at number 9, amassing only 63.9 million in views. Ritchson has beaten Oscar-winner Cillian Murphy this year.

Coverage of Netflix’s internal charts noted that War Machine racked up 83.7 million views in its first two weeks, the best two-week debut of any Netflix movie in 2026. Reports also indicated that in a single tracked week, the film pulled in 44.4 million views and 80.6 million hours watched, making it the most-viewed title on the entire platform that week (via Filmstarts).

While the actor has been growing steadily as Hollywood’s trustworthy action star, these numbers are quite surprising for an actor of his stature. He is also the king of Amazon Prime Video, with the latest season of Reacher becoming the number one hit TV show in the US. It seems like the actor is finally ready for the big leagues.

Alan Ritchson Is a 2026 Streaming Star

Alan Ritchson in Reacher | Credits: Amazon Prime Video

War Machine is just one piece of the puzzle for Alan Ritchson’s 2026. While he started the year with the action romp, his generational run started back in 2025 with Reacher season 3. The show had become the most-watched returning season on Amazon Prime Video and had also broken the record for viewership set by Fallout (via Variety).

However, season 4 surpassed all other expectations. Though it debuted in August, it became the most-watched TV show of the year so far, raking in over 1.5 billion minutes in streaming. The show is also one of the best-rated of the series, earning a 94% score on the Tomatometer (via RT). The spinoff, Neagley, also dominated streaming charts.

Ritchson barely paused before his third major project of the year hit screens. Runner, an action thriller co-starring Owen Wilson and directed by Scott Waugh, opened in theaters on September 11, with Ritchson also serving as a producer. The year is not over yet for the actor, as December will see him come back with The Man with the Bag.

Taken together, the run represents a rare stretch for any actor: a record-breaking streaming film, a record-breaking streaming series, and a well-received theatrical release, all inside the same calendar year. Few performers manage that kind of spread across platforms, and it has cemented Ritchson’s status as one of the most in-demand action leads working today.

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War Machine is streaming on Netflix.