Netflix having a successful and highly-watched action thriller is so commonplace it hardly feels like news anymore, but the sheer volume at which it unleashes new hits to its worldwide audience is undeniably impressive every year. Star-studded heavy-hitters like Alan Ritchson’s War Machine or Ben Affleck and Matt Damon vehicle The Rip has certainly left an astounding impression. However, one particularly impressive milestone came after a brand-new series just blitzed the line to the all-time Top 10 charts in perhaps the most competitive arena of all: Non-English TV.
Released on June 5, 2026, Teach You a Lesson, the latest action series featuring the creative team and multiple cast members of Juvenile Justice, became the only K-drama other than 2021’s Squid Game, with each of its seasons occupying the top three spots, to enter the all-time Top 10 chart.
An astonishing achievement on its own, this merely demonstrates once more the immense popularity of K-dramas which, while not likely to reach the similar levels of popularity of 2021’s most influential breakout, has found a voracious audience on Netflix. In the place of shows similarly reaching Squid Game’s dominant heights, K-dramas are leaving an arguably more significant, telling footprint on the streaming giant’s global output.
Netflix’s Spring Action Thriller Broke Into The All-Time Top 10 In Under 2 Months
Teach You a Lesson’s success is unsurprising in multiple ways thanks to both a built-in fandom for its controversial original webtoon, and an established fandom for its central star, Kim Mu-yeol. With a career defined particularly well by an array of action, thrillers, and an array of other genres from legal dramas to melodrama, Kim Mu-yeol starring in a webtoon adaptation on Netflix was a recipe for success, especially considering even the surprising global popularity of his work in Juvenile Justice. Garnering 62 million views and 662 million hours watched, the series was confirmed as of July 26 to be on the Netflix All-Time Top 10 for Non-English TV streaming, the fastest success for a K-drama since Squid Game.
|
Netflix Non-English TV Series (All Time) |
Views |
Hours Watched |
|---|---|---|
|
Squid Game Season 1 |
265,200,000 |
2,205,200,000 |
|
Squid Game Season 2 |
192,600,000 |
1,380,100,000 |
|
Squid Game Season 3 |
145,800,000 |
894,300,000 |
|
Money Heist Part 4 |
106,000,000 |
710,200,000 |
|
Lupin Part 1 |
99,500,000 |
396,300,000 |
|
Money Heist Part 5 |
99,200,000 |
900,700,000 |
|
Money Heist Part 3 |
80,000,000 |
519,800,000 |
|
La Palma |
70,300,000 |
215,700,000 |
|
Lupin Part 2 |
68,400,000 |
258,900,000 |
|
Teach You a Lesson |
62,000,000 |
662,000,000 |
Among the most impressive details for this listing is that Teach You a Lesson doesn’t appear to have set itself up for a second season, meaning it’s one of only two limited series on the Top 10, with its viewership data clearly indicating its audiences eagerly devoured every second. Additionally, Squid Game’s chokehold on the top three handily outpaces even the English top spots, with a full 13.1 million more views than Wednesday season 1. With the added caveat that these numbers reflect the first 91 days of release, this realistically means the next month could see Teach You a Lesson make a push towards a greater spot, although it’s encountering impressive competition even then.
Netflix’s Most Competitive Streaming Scene Has One Dominant Player, And It’s Astounding
-
Credit: Garage Lab/Netflix © 2026 -
-
Across the entire year of 2026, there has not been a single week in which K-content, whether it’s K-dramas, South Korean reality TV, or the recent BTS concert wasn’t featured on the Non-English Top 10 for Netflix TV shows. The lowest rank this umbrella of content hit all year was #4, with the #1 spot being K-content more than any other medium. Even now, for the week of July 27 through August 2, 2026, five of the Top 10 Non-English TV shows of the past week were K-dramas. This includes the next-hottest competitor in recent months with Agent Kim Reactivated, as well as The East Palace, Spooky in Love, The Apartment Job, and for its ninth week, Teach You a Lesson.
K-dramas are ubiquitous at this point on Netflix, with a show for pretty much anybody, although arguably the best alternative for some of the most compelling action thrillers continues to be Hulu or Disney+ for those seeking similar experiences beyond Netflix’s offerings. It’s an incredible scene, and likely indicates that Teach You a Lesson may have to fight to keep its spot as Netflix shows no signs of slowing this particular content machine down, with some new shows even hitting later in August 2026.
All 10 episodes of Teach You a Lesson are streaming now on Netflix.