Among this year’s biggest shows: Netflix’s three-season action thriller series

If you’ve spent any time on Netflix this year, you might have noticed a bit of a gaping hole in the streaming schedule. That’d be the aftermath of Stranger Things wrapping up last year – the sort of TV event that doesn’t just go quietly. So everyone’s been looking at Netflix, wondering: ‘What’s going to fill those oversized shoes?’ Nielsen’s latest numbers suggest it’s not so much about one new chart-topping behemoth as a handful of solid, binge-friendly titles stepping up – with The Night Agent quietly carving out a place for itself among the heavy hitters.

The Night Agent racked up 8.82 billion streaming minutes in the first six months of 2026.

Nielsen’s tally runs from just after Christmas 2025 right through to the end of June 2026, capturing all those hours people spent glued to their TVs over the winter, spring, and early (well, very rainy) summer. In that half-year, the Stranger Things finale still absolutely dwarfed everything else – a ridiculous 23.26 billion minutes of viewing, including a single-week record everyone else can only gawk at. After that came The Pitt, then perennial fan magnets like Bridgerton, Landman, The Lincoln Lawyer, and The Boys. Tucked in at number 7? The Night Agent, with a respectable 8.82 billion minutes over its three seasons – not a headline grabber, but absolutely solid for a so-called library title.

The ratings landscape

• Stranger Things (Netflix): 23.26bn
• The Pitt (HBO Max): 21.12bn
• Bridgerton (Netflix): 17.15bn
• Landman (Paramount+): 12.40bn
• The Lincoln Lawyer (Netflix): 10.53bn
• The Boys (Prime Video): 9.56bn
• The Night Agent (Netflix): 8.82bn
• Ms. Rachel (Netflix): 8.56bn
• Fallout (Prime Video): 7.98bn
• His & Hers (Netflix): 7.46bn

In other words, The Night Agent edged out viral curveballs like Ms. Rachel, and even HBO’s glossy event shows and Amazon’s big budget swings. It’s not the sort of prestige drama fanatics salivate over, nor is it a social-media phenomenon, but it keeps turning up in these rankings. Worth noting: the first season basically lived in Netflix’s global Top 10 for a chunk of 2023, and back then, it was the most watched anything on the platform for much of the year.

Season two cooled a bit (nothing stays that hot forever), closing out the first half of 2025 at number nine. The current third season opened a little soft compared to its past performance, only sticking around the Top 10 for four weeks, but that’s not always a death knell – sometimes a slow-burn turns out to be a longer-lasting draw in the end.

The next move for The Night Agent

This latest stretch of episodes puts protagonist Peter right through the wringer, as he sniffs out a dark-money conspiracy stretching into the highest levels of government. Friendships fray; nobody knows who to trust; Peter himself is left pondering his own loyalties. The third season, so it’s whispered, actually went down a treat with Netflix’s own executives – some of them consider it the best the show’s done. Maybe more interesting: back in May, Netflix dropped the news that season 4 would be the last. Another Los Angeles shoot, another round through the mill for Peter – and then, curtains.

Creator Shawn Ryan explained to Deadline where his head’s at for the upcoming send-off:

Ever since the initial success of The Night Agent, I’ve been obsessed with eventually delivering a proper and thrilling conclusion to the show and to Peter Sutherland’s journey.

He also mentioned he’s relieved to be able to craft a by-the-book conclusion for the fans, and that the team’s pushing to make the last season a proper finale, not just a limp fade-out disguised as a cliffhanger.

One glaring misstep from season 3 – the absence of Luciane Buchanan’s Rose – is being repaired, as Buchanan has already been confirmed as back in for the grand conclusion. The new season’s roster is looking rather tasty: Titus Welliver (as a Justice Department hard case), Trevante Rhodes (playing Peter’s new field partner, Dom), Li Jun Li (Dom’s wife), and Elizabeth Lail (Peter’s ex) have all signed on, followed by Abigail Breslin, David Denman, and Annabeth Gish announced a touch later.

For the uninitiated, The Night Agent is a twisty conspiracy thriller: FBI agent Peter Sutherland answers a mysterious late-night emergency phone and stumbles into a labyrinth of moles, double-crosses, and White House intrigue. Not the most subtle show on TV, but it gets the job done – and, if the numbers are anything to go by, it’s still one of Netflix’s steadiest performers even with the Endgame in sight.