Picture: The Night Agent, Squid Game, Stranger Things, and Wednesday
We’re barely into the New Year, but without a shadow of a doubt, 2025 will be the biggest year on record for Netflix. But of all the exciting originals that are due to return (and some coming to an end) in 2025, which series will come out on top?
Four stand-out Originals are confirmed to return to Netflix in 2025: The Night Agent, Squid Game, Stranger Things, and Wednesday. All four shows are arguably the biggest and best of what Netflix currently has to offer its 282 million subscribers worldwide. From these four originals alone, Netflix will have billions of viewing hours and hundreds of millions of views on its platform.
Honorable Mentions
- Bridgerton (Season 4) – It is yet to be confirmed to come to Netflix in 2025, and the series is the likely candidate for Netflix’s big Christmas 2025 release. Given the time of year, we expect the series to be released, it would be better judged as being part of the 2026 releases.
- YOU (Season 5) – Joe Goldberg returns to the States, leaving a long and bloody trail in his wake. Since its debut on Netflix, the series has been one of the most popular crime dramas on the streaming service. While many fans will be sad to see the series end, it feels like the right decision has been made to end the show after five seasons. We expect the final season of You to be one of Netflix’s strongest performers of 2025, but will lag behind the likes of the other choices below. All that remains is to see face the music for his crimes. Right? We can’t wait to find out.
The Night Agent (Season 2)
Hours Viewed: 1,100,400,000
CVE (Netflix Views): 134,400,000
As it stands, The Night Agent is the 7th highest-performing Netflix Original series of all time, with 98,200,00 million views in its first 91 days. The series was expected to have a strong debut. Still, after performing well beyond any expectations initially set, Netflix saw fit to renew the series for two seasons.
Between the excellent writing, action, and a strong leading performance from Gabriel Basso, The Night Agent had all the ingredients to be a smash hit show. Since its debut, The Night Agent now belongs to the exclusive club of Originals to exceed 1 billion hours viewed.
Now, the question remains: how will the second season fare? We think the second season will post incredible numbers for Netflix, possibly even exceeding the first season. But compared to the behemoths below, it will take something special for The Night Agent to come out on top.
Squid Game (Season 3)
Hours Viewed: 2,864,490,000 (S1+S2)
CVE (Netflix Views): 357,700,000 (S1+S2)
Squid Game took the world by storm. What started as a slow burner eventually became Netflix’s juggernaut, and over three years since it debuted, the Korean thriller is still the most-watched Netflix Original series of all time. The first season alone has amassed almost 2.4 billion viewing hours, which equates to almost 290 million views.
To no one’s surprise, the second season is already off to a strong start, which has seen Squid Game reach the milestone of becoming one of only a few Netflix Original series to exceed over 3 billion hours viewed (this equates to 125 million days or 342,231 years!).
We’re yet to see the full performance of the second season, and with the third and final season due to be released this summer, we’ll likely see the series reach even more major milestones.
Wednesday (Season 2)
Hours Viewed: 2,193,250,000
CVE (Netflix Views): 332,400,000
Wednesday was such a smash hit on Netflix that the series even outperformed the fourth season of Stranger Things in its first 91 days on the platform. Not only was the series a viral sensation on Netflix, but the internet became obsessed with Jenna Ortega’s portrayal of the beloved Wednesday Addams, and numerous clips of her performance could be found everywhere on social media platforms.
The sky is the limit for Wednesday, and the second season will undoubtedly be another ginormous success for Netflix. But just how successful are we talking? Given the expected changes for the second season, where we’ve learned there will be more emphasis on horror and mystery and less on teen romance, we predict that the second season will outperform the first. Wednesday could easily reach half a billion views since its debut.
Stranger Things (Season 5)
Hours Viewed: 3,897,580,000 (2022 Stats + Engagement Reports)
CVE (Netflix Views): 345,600,000 (2022 Stats + Engagement Reports)
Stranger Things. What started as a fun, goonies-esque horror adventure, high on 80s nostalgia, became not only Netflix’s flagship show but also one of the most culturally impactful television shows of the streaming era and the 21st century.
One major criticism thrown at the series is the length of time it has taken for the fourth and now the final season to be released on Netflix. While it’s easy to understand the frustration of subscribers, it’s also easy to forget that factors outside of the production’s control had contributed to such lengthy delays, thanks in part to a global pandemic and the 2023 writer’s strike. Thankfully, the wait is almost over, and the epic finale of Netflix’s flagship series is almost here.
The stats we’ve used above have been taken from the analytics Netflix has released since 2022. So, when you consider that Netflix has three seasons and years of unreported data, it’s incredibly likely that Stranger Things has already exceeded well beyond 5 billion viewing hours and over 500 million views.
The final season isn’t expected to receive the incredibly long runtimes of the fourth season, but that won’t stop the series from the series from amassing some huge viewing figures.
So, which original will come out on top?
There’s no easy way to predict precisely which original will come out on top. But it will undoubtedly be a close competition between Squid Game, Stranger Things, and Wednesday. We expect The Night Agent to have another strong outing, but the series will come in fourth.
Squid Game has a considerable advantage when you consider the second season was released just before the start of 2025, and its third and final season is due to arrive mid-year. Meanwhile, Stranger Things will likely receive a Summer release, and Wednesday will likely receive a Fall release in time for Halloween.
While Wednesday is wildly popular, what gives Squid Game and Stranger Things the added edge is that both seasons are coming to an end, and considering that both titles are two of Netflix’s flagship shows, there’s going to be even more intrigue online to see how these shows end.
Which Netflix Original do you think will come out on top in 2025? Let us know in the comments below@
