Nielsen Says Star Wars Viewing Is Still Movie-First — Even in the Disney+ Era

or all the talk about Star Wars becoming a streaming-first franchise, the numbers are doing something very old-fashioned: pointing back at the movies.

According to new Nielsen data on Star Wars viewing in 2025, live-action movies accounted for the biggest share of total Star Wars viewing, with 44.2% of watch time. Live-action series followed closely at 38.9%, while animation made up 16.8% and documentaries barely registered at 0.2%.

In other words: Disney+ may have turned Star Wars into a year-round TV machine, but the films are still the franchise’s gravitational center.

The Movies Still Run the Galaxy

Nielsen reports that U.S. viewers spent more than 33 billion minutes watching Star Wars content across linear TV and streaming in 2025, with streaming accounting for most of that total. That is not exactly a franchise quietly fading into the twin suns.

The most-watched Star Wars film of the year was not a new Disney-era release. It was A New Hope, followed by The Phantom Menace and Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. That is a fascinating top three: the original that started everything, the prequel that has become far more culturally loved over time, and the Disney-era film most directly wired into the original trilogy’s bloodstream.

Nielsen also notes that Rogue One likely received a boost from the second and final season of Andor, which leads directly into the film. That makes sense. If a show spends two seasons building toward one of the best endings in modern Star Wars, people are probably going to hit play on the movie afterward.

TV Is Close Behind — Thanks Largely to Andor

Live-action series taking 38.9% of viewing is no small thing. That is a massive chunk of attention, and it shows how important Disney+ has become to modern Star Wars.

As Nielsen points out in its breakdown of the franchise’s 2025 viewing habits, Andor led all live-action Star Wars series viewing with 7.4 billion minutes watched in 2025. The show also appeared in Nielsen’s Original Top 10 for six consecutive weeks during its final season run.

Behind Andor, Skeleton Crew and The Mandalorian rounded out the top three individual Star Wars live-action shows. That is probably the cleanest lesson here: Star Wars TV works best when each show has a clear identity. Andor is prestige rebellion drama. The Mandalorian is wandering gunslinger myth. Skeleton Crew brought a younger adventure tone with pirate-flavored chaos.

Not everything needs to be the same kind of Star Wars. In fact, the numbers suggest the opposite.

Animation Remains the Quiet Workhorse

Animation accounting for 16.8% of Star Wars viewing is also worth paying attention to. That is not the biggest slice, but it is far from irrelevant.

Star Wars animation has spent years doing the heavy lifting of character development, lore expansion, and long-form mythology. The Clone Wars, Rebels, The Bad Batch, and the newer anthology-style animated projects have helped keep entire eras alive for viewers who want more than the theatrical timeline can provide.

It is the slightly nerdier corner of the buffet, yes — but it is also where a lot of the franchise’s most loyal eating happens.

Star Wars Day Was Still a Streaming Monster

The Nielsen report also highlights just how much Star Wars remains part of the annual May the 4th ritual. On Star Wars Day 2025, viewers watched nearly 637 million minutes of Star Wars content, with Andor ranking first among the most-streamed titles for the day.

That says something interesting. The movies may still lead across the full year, but on the franchise’s biggest fan holiday, a live-action series took the top spot. That is the current Star Wars ecosystem in miniature: the films are the foundation, but Disney+ now drives a huge part of the conversation.

The Format Split Says More Than One Thing

The obvious headline is that movies still lead. The more useful takeaway is that Star Wars is healthiest when every format has a job.

Movies provide scale. Live-action series provide continuity and weekly conversation. Animation deepens the mythology. Documentaries, even at 0.2%, serve the archive crowd and the behind-the-scenes sickos among us. We see you. We respect you. Please keep explaining matte paintings.

The Nielsen data does not say Star Wars should abandon streaming or run back to theaters in panic. It says the opposite: the galaxy works best as a mixed ecosystem.

But if Lucasfilm needed a reminder before The Mandalorian and Grogu brings Star Wars back to cinemas, here it is in chart form: the Force may be strong on Disney+, but the movie side of Star Wars still has serious pull.