Paramount+'s 10/10 Spy Thriller Series With 393 Million Minutes Viewed Deserves Its Streaming Success

Published Aug 3, 2026, 4:37 PM EDT Felipe Rangel is a Movie and TV Journalist ScreenRant. He has been writing about movies and TV since 2021. Felipe joined ScreenRant in 2022, working across different teams, covering everything from breaking news to features to reviews and more. Felipe is a writer who is an avid film and TV fan, with superhero movies and series being his biggest passion. He graduated from college in 2019, having studied Journalism. Before college, he spent a month studying at the Oxford English Centre. His superhero knowledge expands to the comics, with his undergraduate thesis being "Politics Reflected In American Comics." Paramount+ has one of the best spy thriller series on streaming right now, and after releasing a new batch of episodes, it has become a global sensation, and the espionage drama deserves its success. Paramount+ has become quite popular right now for the return of a major fantasy franchise, as the streaming service's movie library recently added a massive release. That would be the animated Avatar Aang: The Last Airbender, which was once set for a theatrical release and continues the adventures of the core cast of characters from the seminal Avatar: The Last Airbender. That said, Paramount+'s TV show options have also been popping off as of late, with another major release coming from the medium, and it is a returning thriller. Taylor Sheridan's spy series Lioness is currently the most-watched TV show on Paramount+ worldwide, according to FlixPatrol. That genre has done well for the streaming service in the past, and Lioness season 3's success just goes to show how subscribers gravitate towards spy stories. A little over a month ago, another Paramount+ spy thriller series also found success on the streamer. The Agency stars Fox X-Men franchise actor Michael Fassbender as Martian, a former undercover CIA agent who resumes his life in London after years away and sees his fake backstory conflict with real emotions. The Agency season 2 debuted all of its 10 episodes at once on Paramount+ on June 21, and they pulled in significant streaming numbers. Paramount+'s The Agency Has Huge Streaming Numbers The Agency season 1 performed well enough that the streaming service moved forward with season 2. Now, the show's second batch of episodes has confirmed that the Paramount+ spy thriller series has what it takes for an even longer run. According to data from Nielsen, The Agency amassed a high total of 393 million minutes watched in the week of June 22 to June 28. The Paramount+ spy series landed at 9th on Nielsen's streaming TV chart. It ranked higher than Netflix's Ms. Rachel, which had a total of 303 million minutes watched, at 10th. At the top of the chart was one of Netflix's biggest TV shows of all time, a true streaming behemoth, I Will Find You, with 2.48 billion minutes watched. Now, over a month since the debut of its new season on the streaming service, The Agency still finds itself as the 10th most-watched TV show on Paramount+ worldwide, according to FlixPatrol. This confirms the strength of the spy thriller genre on the streaming service for global audiences, as The Agency closes the list, while Sheridan's Lioness stands tall at the top of it as Paramount+'s most popular series worldwide. Why The Agency Deserves Its Streaming Success Image courtesy of Paramount+ The Agency started on a solid note, with a slow first season that took its time to build a gritty world full of secrets, double crossings, lies, and spies. Season 1 landed at a decent 66% critics' score on Rotten Tomatoes and a strong 79% audience score. That said, when The Agency came back for season 2, the show finally revealed just how good it could be when firing on all cylinders. The Agency season 2 currently holds a near-perfect 92% critics' score, with an even better 93% audience score, which is testament to how much it has improved. In ScreenRant's The Agency season 2 review, I rated the show a perfect 10 out of 10, going as far as to claim that the spy series' new batch of episodes easily made this season earn a coveted masterpiece status. There is definitely more action in The Agency season 2, but the supporting characters have all had their roles and personalities beefed up, Fassbender's Martian constantly proves himself a skilled spy, and the ending perfectly tees up a third season. The Agency deserves its streaming success because it is better than ever. Release Date December 1, 2024 Network Paramount+ with Showtime Showrunner Jez Butterworth, John-Henry Butterworth Directors Joe Wright, Zetna Fuentes, Neil Burger