A 101-minute Netflix action thriller just claimed the all-time streaming crown

Netflix is absolutely still king of the streaming pile, and despite every other service trying to muscle in, it keeps churning out viral, record-smashing hits. This year, they've crowned a new action movie champ, one with just a bit more monster than muscle. Forget your usual shootouts and car chases—Netflix viewers have gone mad for an enormous, fairy tale beast running riot through Norway in Troll.

Troll has racked up 178.6 million hours watched, making it the most-viewed non-English film on Netflix ever.

Stomping Out the Competition

This 101-minute Norwegian blockbuster isn’t content with a little niche fandom—it’s climbed all the way to Netflix’s top spot, flattening even solid action fare like Carry-On (the Christmas 'Die Hard') and Exterratorial (Netflix’s answer to Taken) along the way. If you like your streaming with a side of mass destruction and Scandinavian folklore, this one’s engineered for you.

Troll is your classic creature-feature-with-a-twist. Deep underneath Dovre Mountain, something absolutely massive and rather peeved is waking up after a millennium on ice. It smashes its way out and makes a beeline for Oslo, leaving only puzzled locals and terrified livestock in its wake. So who’s going to stop it? Gather up your standard ragtag squad—one part scientists, one part soldiers, plenty of dramatic shouting in Norwegian—all led by Ine Marie Wilmann, an actress who deserves far more international attention. She’s got company from Mads Sjøgård Pettersen, Anneke von der Lippe, Gard B. Eidsvold, Fridtjov Såheim, and Dennis Storhøi. It’s a genuinely stacked Norwegian cast, if hardly household names outside Scandinavia.

At the helm is Roar Uthaug, who’s not just got a great name—he also directed that Alicia Vikander Tomb Raider reboot a few years back, plus local gems like The Wave and Cold Prey. This time, he’s delivered something that’s basically ‘What if Godzilla, but Viking?’ No complaints here. Reviewers were keen: Rotten Tomatoes has it at 90% with critics, though it’s noticeably less loved by audiences, scoring just 51% on the famous Popcornometer. Still, if you measure by hours watched (and Netflix absolutely does), the world is more than a bit obsessed.

• Troll – 178.6 million hours
• Under Paris – 177.3 million
• Society of the Snow – 239.7 million (but longer film, fewer views)
• Exterratorial – 166.5 million
• The Platform, Nowhere, The Great Flood, and others fill out the global top 10

A Franchise Emerges

Amazingly, director Roar Uthaug was apparently nursing this idea for over two decades before Netflix finally said yes. Following Troll’s monster-size popularity, of course there’s now a Troll 2, released just last year. Same formula, new troll, still Norway, and, pleasingly, the core trio of Nora (Wilmann), Andreas, and Captain Kris are all back, taking on another round of gigantic mythological headaches. They also get a wild-card ally along for the ride this time around.

Sequel syndrome crept in: Troll 2 didn’t win quite as much critical love (61% critics, 34% audiences on Rotten Tomatoes). It also pulled a more modest but still hefty 47 million views, but that was easily enough to launch it straight to #1 globally on its opening. And yes, if you’re wondering, those numbers are still blockbusting territory by anyone’s standards.

So where does it go from here? Will Netflix pull the trigger on Troll 3? The director’s got big ideas, that much is obvious. As Roar Uthaug teased only last year:

I don't think there's any limits to how big the Trollverse can get.