There has been a shift in the Force. Ever since the beginning, Darth Vader has been the face of the Star Wars franchise – after all, Episodes I to VI are essentially his story. However, over the past year, there has been an awakening in the saga and a new being has taken over to become the most beloved character in the galaxy. At least, that’s according to Google searches.
SEMRush (via Express) has collated data from the search engine and has discovered the top 10 most popular Star Wars characters based on how many times they’ve been Googled over the past year. And far, far away in the number one spot is Baby Yoda, with fans searching the adorable little critter 4.7 million times on average every month for the past 12 months.
The success of the Disney Plus show he hails from is further proven with who’s in second place. The Mandalorian himself, as played by Pedro Pascal, has accrued just shy of 2.5 million average searches. Then, in third place, is Vader, with 893,250 average Googles to his name.
In fourth place is Yoda himself, with 882,500 searches, a figure no doubt aided by The Child’s popularity. Kylo Ren and Chewbacca are then in the fifth and sixth positions, likely due to the release of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker in December. That’s about it for the influence of Episode IX, however, as the rest are pretty timeless favorites. In seventh is Anakin Skywalker, eighth is Boba Fett, ninth is Luke Skywalker and in the final position is Jabba the Hutt of all characters. He brings up the rear with 403,250 searches.
The overwhelming interest in The Mandalorian characters and the limited popularity of the cast of Rise of Skywalker says a lot about what Star Wars fans most enjoyed in 2019. And it bodes well for the Disney Plus series’ continued popularity when it returns for its second run this fall.
