Andor amassed 7.4 billion minutes in 2025, topping Star Wars live‑action viewing

Star Wars is still a movie franchise first — but the new Nielsen numbers show TV has become one of its biggest engines. U.S. viewers spent more than 33 billion minutes with Star Wars across streaming and linear TV in 2025, and the standout on the live-action side was Andor at 7.4 billion minutes. That matters because Andor was never built as the broadest, safest corner of the brand. It was the serious one. The political one. And turns out that version of Star Wars can pull real scale. ### What actually got measured? This is a 2025 U.S. viewing snapshot from Nielsen, covering both streaming and linear TV. The 33 billion-minute total includes films, live-action series, animation, and documentaries. Streaming did most of the work, with Disney+ acting as the main hub, but the point is broader than one app — the franchise still generates huge repeat viewing across formats. ### Where did Andor land? Among live-action series, Andor finished first with 7.4 billion viewing minutes in 2025. Nielsen also says the show spent six straight weeks in the Top 10 Streaming Originals during its spring run, which helps explain how it piled up that total. Skeleton Crew and The Mandalorian followed behind it in the live-action ranking. ### Why is that surprising? Because Andor has always looked like the “critical favorite, narrower audience” bet. It is slower, darker, and much less toy-friendly than The Mandalorian. A lot of franchise logic says the safer play should win on volume. But this result suggests prestige after new episodes land. That last part matters more than a splashy premiere. ### Did Andor lead all of Star Wars? No — and this is the useful nuance. Films were still the biggest category overall at 44.2% of total Star Wars viewing, while exclusive live-action series accounted for 38.9%. So Andor topped the live-action TV field, not the entire franchise. The second. People do not just sample the new thing — they loop back to the old stuff constantly. ### What happened on May 4 itself? Nielsen says May 4, 2025 generated nearly 637 million Star Wars viewing minutes in the U.S. for that day alone. Andor was the top title on that date, helped by the rollout of its second season. That is a nice example of how event viewing and library to go. ### So what does this mean for Lucasfilm? Basically, it weakens the old idea that Star Wars TV has to be simple, broad, and merch-first to justify itself. Andor is proof that a more adult, more serialized show can still become a major consumption driver. The case of one. ### Why should anyone outside fandom care? Because this is really a streaming economics story. Big franchises are not judged only by opening weekend energy anymore. They are judged by whether they can keep people inside a library for months. Andor’s 7.4 billion minutes says Star Wars can still do that with something riskier than its usual crowd-pleasers. ### Bottom line The headline is not just that Andor won its lane. It is that Star Wars in 2025 looked healthier and more flexible than the brand’s recent discourse suggested — with films anchoring the library and Andor proving prestige live-action can pull blockbuster-scale attention too.