While the full list of HBO originals set to stream on Netflix hasn’t been released, the instantaneous success found by Ballers would lead you to believe that the streaming service will be pulling out all of the stops to secure the heaviest hitters from the Warner Bros. back catalogue.
Issa Rae’s Insecure was first out of the gate, and it’s been swiftly followed by Dwayne Johnson’s five-season run as Spencer Strasmore in the hit dramatic comedy, while World War II epics Band of Brothers and The Pacific are both on the way, as rumors abound that True Blood will be next in line.
Although you’d expect the presence of the biggest, most popular, and highest-paid movie star on the planet in the lead role certainly helps – not to mention his status as the leading man and producer of Netflix’s single most-watched original feature of all-time – the novelty of bingeing an HBO original on a rival platform may have also contributed to Ballers‘ rapid rise up the ranks.
Per FlixPatrol, the sports-centric story has wasted no time becoming one of the heftiest episodic hits available to subscribers everywhere, with a Top 10 debut in 39 countries around the world placing Ballers as the fifth top-viewed title worldwide on the content library.
The downside is that it isn’t available in every single nation where Netflix has skin in the game, but for everybody else, they’re thrilled to be able to smell what The Rock is cooking without having to track down the show elsewhere.