Pictures: Netflix
Welcome along to another deep dive into the latest Netflix top 10 numbers. Below, we’ll be charting the biggest stories in the Netflix top 10s this week with a focus on The Night Agent, The Trauma Code, Squid Game, WAGS to Riches, and The Sand Castle.
Note: In this report of Netflix’s hours viewed from January 20th, 2025 to January 26th, 2025, we’ll use “Complete Viewings Equivalent,” or CVE, expressed in millions. That means we divide the hours viewed announced by Netflix by the runtime of films or series. It allows for better comparisons between films and series, but it’s not an audience metric. It is the minimum number of viewings if they were all complete from the first second to the last of the film or season.
As a reminder, you can view more of the top 10 data points and search for each title using our most popular Netflix search tools.
1. The Night Agent just got demoted.
After the release of season 1, The Night Agent was one of the most-watched Netflix series of all time, becoming quite the phenomenon, but the release of season 2 is pouring quite a bit of cold water on that hot Netflix property as the second season launched with a lackluster 13.9M CVEs, a 30% drop compared to the launch of season 1 that was released without the public knowing about it at all.
The frontloading effect for a second season is nowhere to be seen, and that does not bode well for the future of the series beyond the third season, which is already in production. The first season of The Night Agent might just have been released at the right time with the right tone to become such a viewership success, but that won’t happen to season 2 unless there is a change of fortune next week.
2. A check-in on Squid Game Season 2
Its ‘time to take a look at how Squid Game season 2 is doing, 5 weeks after its launch and it’s still doing very well, well above all the other Netflix series in existence, except for season 1 of Squid Game and Wednesday, the only two series to have done better numbers. Season 2 of Squid Game will now venture into uncharted territories around the 180 to 220M CVEs mark in the coming weeks.
3. The Sand Castle
The only Netflix Original film of the past week comes from Lebanon with The Sand Castle, and its debut is rather on the higher end of other Netflix films from this region released on a Friday with 4.8M CVEs in its first three days.
4. The Trauma Code: Heroes On Call
The South Korean series The Trauma Code debuted strong with 4.7M CVEs in 3 days, ranking as the 5th best launch for a non-miniseries South Korean series in my dataset. If renewal’s possible, it could happen as the series falls into a rather encouraging performance range.
5. W.A.G.s to Riches debuts low…
The launch of the reality show W.A.G.s to Riches, following the undoubtedly thrilling lives of celebrity partners, is far from impressive. With only 2.3M CVEs in 5 days, the show performed worse than Dubai Bling season 3 or even Car Masters: Rust to Riches, which follows guys restoring cars in some remote corner of the U.S. Maybe there’s a crossover idea to explore here, especially with such similar titles. Something like W.A.G.ters: Rust to Riches? I don’t know, just throwing it out there.
That’s all for this week, feel free to let us know what you think in the comments below.
Rating: TV-MA
