Picture Credit: Netflix
The Netflix top 10s are in, and it’s a worrying start for the return of Peter Sutherland for Season 3 in its opening four days. While the big-budget show was once a powerhouse IP, the data suggests a franchise that is losing viewers at a concerning rate, season over season. Season 4 is still not yet officially a go but could these numbers suggest we may be close to the end? Hopefully not.
Every Tuesday, Netflix updates its top 10 stats page with 40 new hourly figures from the top movies and shows of the past seven days. If you want to browse the top 10 data easily, visit our search tool.
One of the biggest debuts of the week was The Night Agent, which returns 13 months after season 2 dropped in January 2025. As we covered at the time, The Night Agent had seen a major drop, and that’s continued for season 3.
First, here’s how Netflix explained (in paragraph 3) the return of The Night Agent:
“Seasoned night owl and undercover operative Peter Sutherland (Gabriel Basso) is back in Season 3 of The Night Agent, which took No. 2 on the English TV list with 8.4 million views. The fan-favorite series — Season 1 remains on Netflix’s Most Popular English TV list at No. 10 — is already receiving critical acclaim as the new season puts Peter in Istanbul, tracking down a treasury agent who’s stolen sensitive government intel while dodging assassins and pulling off the intense action stunts we’ve come to expect.”
So what are the stats? All three seasons have released on Thursdays, meaning we’ve got apples-to-apples comparisons.
- The Night Agent (Season 1) – Runtime: 8 hours and 11 mins
- Release Date: March 23rd, 2023
- Date Period: Mar 19 to Mar 26, 2023
- Hours: 168,710,000
- Views: 20,600,000
- Position: #1
- Featured in 92 Countries’ Weekly Top 10s
- The Night Agent (Season 2) – Runtime: 8 hrs 36 mins
- Release Date: January 23rd, 2025
- Date Period: Jan 19 to Jan 26, 2025
- Hours: 119,900,000
- Views: 13,900,000
- Position: #1
- Featured in 75 Countries’ Weekly Top 10s
- The Night Agent (Season 3) – Runtime: 8 hrs 43 mins
In terms of percentages, between Season 1 and Season 2, we saw a drop of roughly 32%. Season 3 has seen an even sharper decline, dropping nearly 40% from Season 2 and a massive 59% from the series premiere.
Viewership going down on prior seasons is not new or particularly uncommon. In fact, last we clocked that only one show at the time had gained viewership season over season, and that was Stranger Things (although it’s since fallen behind). The Lincoln Lawyer is another rare exception that has gained season over season, with its recent season still clocking great numbers in the top 10s.
Let’s stack up the debut of The Night Agent in graph form:
Putting the launch further into context against other shows of varying sizes, we can see that The Night Agent is now lingering alongside mid-sized-budget shows like The Lincoln Lawyer and Nobody Wants This. It is right around the territory of The Waterfront, a series that was canceled last year, much to many’s (including ours) surprise.
Zooming out to look at the trajectory the show could be following in the coming weeks, it’s not looking great. Season 3 is going to need a huge burst of over 20 million views to get close to season 2.
There is some hope for the series, as FlixPatrol has been noticing a sustained uptick in where and how high up the daily top 10s it ranks around the world. Fingers crossed for a big week 2.
What does this mean for The Night Agent season 4?
As we’ve covered elsewhere, the future of The Night Agent had been looking quite strong. We learned in late 2025 that a writer’s room was already underway, and soon after, we got news that the series had been given provisional tax credits to move filming to Los Angeles, provided it starts filming this year. Last we heard, a Q2 2026 production start had been targeted should the series get a swift renewal. The showrunner had confirmed during the season 3 marketing run-up that they were waiting for an official greenlight.
One of the most important metrics will be the series’ completion rate, which we don’t get to see. If it remains high, we suspect season 4 is still looking likely, albeit with the caveat that we could be approaching the end, or we could see other cost-cutting measures, such as a reduction in episode count.
What do you think is the reason for The Night Agent declining in viewership? Let us know in the comments.
