The Most-Streamed Star Wars Movies On Disney+ Are Completely Surprising

It's May the 4th, which means "Star Wars" day is upon us. "Star Wars" Day 2026 means there's lots of toys, collectibles, and other merch to track down. More than anything, it's an excuse to celebrate one of the most beloved franchises in history. And fans very much continue to celebrate a galaxy far, far away. Even though we haven't had a new movie in the franchise in nearly seven years, these movies remain very popular. But the most-streamed "Star Wars" movies of 2025 are likely going to come as a pretty big surprise to many fans.

As reported by Variety, Nielsen revealed that U.S. viewers viewed 33 billion minutes, or about 550 million hours, of "Star Wars" movies and TV shows in 2025. That includes both linear TV and streaming. What's more, the movies accounted for the biggest share of that viewing totaling 44.2%. This despite the fact that Disney and Lucasfilm have made a pretty significant pivot to TV with shows like "The Mandalorian" and "Andor." But most surprising of all is the movies that fans watched most.

Director George Lucas' "Star Wars: A New Hope," the 1977 sci-fi classic that started it all, was the most-watched movie of them all. That's pretty understandable. The rest of the top three is where it gets downright fascinating. In the number two spot was 1999's "The Phantom Menace," which kicked off the prequel trilogy, followed by 2016's "Rogue One," which turned just two lines of text into a $1 billion box office hit.

One might have expected the original trilogy to dominate the list, and it would have been easy to imagine that "The Force Awakens" would come in above "Rogue One." This list is a fascinating window into the current state of "Star Wars" fandom.

The most intriguing entry on this list is "Star Wars: The Phantom Menace." For a number of years, there was a narrative that the prequels were a stain on the franchise's reputation: Lesser-than the original trilogy and hated loudly by many. These numbers further assert that the prequels have been fully redeemed, in no small part thanks to Gen Z and younger millennials who grew up with them.

"The Phantom Menace" created a whole new generation of "Star Wars" fans. Those who were raised on the original trilogy were unsatisfied with the prequels as adults, but to people of a certain age? These movies are "Star Wars" to them, plain and simple. "The Clone Wars" TV show also went a long way in fostering prequel era fandom. Now? Episode I stands tall as one of the most-watched movies in the entire franchise.

As for "Rogue One," it has long stood tall as one of the most roundly beloved movies made during the Disney era of Lucasfilm for some time. With "Andor" Season 2, the most expensive "Star Wars" project of all time, airing in 2025, it makes sense that people would want to revisit "Rogue One," as the show leads right up to the events of that movie. That makes its inclusion on this list easier to explain.

This data is telling about how Disney could/should approach "Star Wars" in the future. None of the sequels made it onto the list, though the era of sequel trilogy nostalgia does appear to be upon us. The future of this franchise can't purely be about nostalgia for the original trilogy. The fans have moved beyond that.