The Most-Searched Star Wars Character of 2024

The Star Wars universe is chock-full of a wide variety of characters, both good and evil, but only one managed to dominate search trends throughout 2024.

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As a lifelong Star Wars fan, it's safe to say I know a fair amount about the franchise, both on and off the screen. That said, I would be lying if I didn't occasionally conduct a Google search to answer a question about the significance of a certain character or another Easter egg. Over the last decade, we've been introduced to a galaxy's worth of Star Wars content, which can be hard to keep up with if you're bouncing around from series to series. Still, I wouldn't have guessed that a certain familiar character would lead Star Wars searches this past year.

The Most-Searched Star Wars Character of 2024 Was Darth Vader

A recent study by Lightsabers Blog examined Google search data on a global scale to determine which Star Wars character was getting the most attention. Some favorites included Grogu (a.k.a. Baby Yoda), Anakin Skywalker, Yoda, and Obi-Wan Kenobi. However, the most popular character searched was none other than Darth Vader, with a monthly search volume of 622,000. Now, technically speaking, Anakin Skywalker and Darth Vader are the same person, so if you were to add Anakin Skywalker searches, that would bring the total to nearly 1.2 million.

Facts You May Not Know About Darth Vader

In honor of the chosen one's Google search victory, let's chat about some things you probably didn't know about Darth Vader. The first might come as a shock to many fans, but perhaps it just gives credit to the character's menacing stance. According to Looper, Vader is on screen for only eight minutes and six seconds of Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope (the first one ever made), which accounts for just six percent of the entire movie. That's actually quite low, considering he was the main villain in the film.

Another fact about the character involves a bit of trickery from the maker himself—George Lucas. According to Art of Entertainment, Darth Vader's iconic "I am your father" line was such a secret plot twist that the directors kept it hidden from the actors to prevent spoilers. The original script for Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back included the false line, "Obi-Wan killed your father." The real line wasn't added until the rest of the movie had been produced. See more Darth Vader facts HERE.