Featured Image Credit: Amazon Prime
Topics: Lord of the Rings, Film and TV
Callum Jones
For six weeks, The Rings of Power has held the top spot on Amazon Prime, inviting fans back to Middle Earth for an adventure set about 1,000 years before the events of The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit.
Now, however, a new show has taken the crown, replacing orcs and elves with a futuristic sci-fi thriller.
And, as well as being widely watched, the high-concept tale has received rave reviews from viewers, with an audience score of 89 percent on Rotten Tomatoes.
You can watch the trailer for the new Amazon series below:
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The Peripheral is based on the novel of the same name by William Gibson, and it's making waves despite only two episodes are available to watch for the show right now, booting The Rings of Power down to second place on Amazon Prime this week.
The TV series set in the far future follows a woman named Flynne as she discovers a secret connection to alterative reality, but she quickly realises her future is not too bright.
The cast includes Kick Ass' Chloë Grace Moretz, 21 Bridges' Gary Carr and Transformers' Jack Reynor in what is an unpredictable future drama.
The Peripheral is made by Lisa Joy and Jonathan Nolan - the creators of HBO's popular sci-fi show Westworld.
If you're curious about what other TV shows and films are in the top ten this week, then you can take a look below.
The top ten most streamed shows and movies on Amazon Prime right now are:
10) Ambulance
9) Wheel of Time
8) Four More Shots Please!
7) Memory
6) The Boys
5) The Terminal List
4) The Northman
3) Reacher
2) The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power
1) The Peripheral
Producers of Rings of Power were relieved to see it doing well considering the massive budget behind just the first season of the show.
Back in August, The Wall Street Journal reported that the first season of The Rings of Power cost a staggering $715 million (£635 million).
By comparison, HBO's Game of Thrones cost $100 million for a season - though that was higher for the final season.
A third of that comes from a $250 million rights agreement between Amazon and Warner Bros. plus the estate of Lord of the Rings author J.R.R. Tolkien.
That's not all though, as production costs for the first season set Amazon back $465 million.
The series was filmed entirely in New Zealand during Covid restrictions, which likely presented many more challenges.
As part of the filming in New Zealand, the government gave Amazon NZ$100 million (£50 million) to help boost their filming budget.
On the deal, Minister for Economic Development and Tourism Stuart Nash told Morning Report: "I think what we have got out of Amazon in terms of the MOU and the industry and how we're going to train people and our ability to use footage for tourism, the ability to leverage off a lot of what Amazon is doing, is fantastic.
"The bottom line is if we want a film industry in this country, part and parcel of that is government subsidies."