Netflix Thriller Series Most Watched In The World And Most People Don’t Know It

By Jason Collins | Published

Netflix recently revealed its Netflix Engagement Report, which covers six months of streaming habits on the platform. The report states that worldwide audiences spent 812 million hours watching The Night Agent, which now stands as Netflix’s most-viewed political thriller in the first half of 2023.

The Night Agent is an American action thriller TV series that premiered on Netflix in March 2023. Its plot centers on an FBI agent, Peter Sutherland (Gabriel Basso), who works at the White House as a night action telephone operator. After receiving a phone call one night, the protagonist is thrown into a vast conspiracy about a mole at the highest levels of the US government. So, to save the nation as any television hero would do, Sutherland plunges himself into a desperate hunt for the traitor while also protecting a former tech CEO from those attempting to unalive her.

The Night Agent was initially announced by Sony Pictures Television for its own digital lineup in 2020, but the rights to the series were subsequently acquired by Netflix in 2021. Following two years of development, shooting, and post-production, the series aired on Netflix in March this year, becoming the third-most-viewed debuting series on Netflix in its first four days on the platform. Its success continued, and the series was renewed for a second season within a week of its debut, and within one month, it became Netflix’s sixth-most-viewed series.

However, the recent report paints a different picture. Netflix decided to become more transparent when it comes to its numbers, which puts The Night Agent as a top-viewed show of the first half of 2023. Now, the fact that The Night Agent climbed the viewing charts isn’t as surprising as Netflix’s willingness to start sharing its numbers and content performance metrics following massive criticism of the platform. Some of that criticism was actually central to this year’s Hollywood strikes, with writers and actors demanding higher royalties for shows that performed well.

For example, actor Aaron Paul previously disclosed that he received $0 in royalties for his work on Breaking Bad, despite the show being one of the most popular IPs Netflix currently streams on its platform. However, Netflix defended its lack of transparency as a means of keeping crucial information from reaching its potential and direct competitors while building its business. This caused plenty of mistrust between the platform and creators, but the company has now decided to start sharing data, which discloses their top viewing content, including The Night Agent.

As for the series itself, while The Night Agent has been renewed for the second season, no further details associated with the upcoming content have been disclosed. Considering that the renewal happened in the show’s first week, we can assume that it’s still in its early conceptual phases and completely devoid of a release date. But at least we know it’s happening and that we’re scheduled to receive another ten episodes of The Night Agent. Eventually.