The Force Was Awakened… But Has it Fallen Back Asleep?
By Hayden Beck
The year was 2015. The world of cinema was stagnant. For every year since 2008 Disney had pumped out a new carbon-copy version of some Marvel Comics superhero while the numerous other studios and production companies around the world competed for what little attention audiences had left to spare. Then on one fateful Fall afternoon, on the 19th of October, Disney made history through the release of a singular three-minute movie trailer. A trailer that had been so deeply anticipated, the world was shook to its very core. Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens. The first Star Wars movie in over a decade to release later that year just before Christmas day. The trailer circulated madly through the internet, movie theaters, and on television like the fierce wind during a hurricane. And as the world frothed at the mouth over the long awaited sequel trilogy, fans dived deep into the depths of the internet, scouring the web for all the information they could possibly find on this newly revived series.
At the time, I was 15 years old and likely the biggest Star Wars fan in the county. Having witnessed the trailer in all its glory, I think I might have watched it several dozen more times just to make sure it was real. But to say my experience was a unique one would be like shouting for all the world to hear that you lack basic observation skills.
Fast forward to modern times, in the midst of the many Star Wars shows and movies that have come out in these past few years, I find myself reflecting on the extraordinary excitement I once felt for such projects. I remember the chaos that ensued when the first trailer for the Force Awakens was released, but nowadays I notice a lack of such fervent Star Wars worship. As more Star Wars projects are realized, the larger the pool of content grows. And perhaps more Star Wars equals less Star Wars excitement, as the fandom grows fat with the release of content when not so long ago we were starved of it. But that poses a question: I remember just how hysterical the world became as the new Star Wars trilogy was brought into the light, but what might that data actually look like?
To answer this question, I decided to analyze the daily viewership of the Star Wars Wikipedia page over the years to see just how the public’s interest in the series has behaved.
This graph adequately displays how the upticks in viewership of the Star Wars Wikipedia page reflect the release of Star Wars movies roughly every year after December 2015. The massive spike in viewership on the right hand side of the graph represents the release of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, the very first movie in the series in a decade. The next prominent spike in the graph occurs in December of 2016 with the release of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. Each subsequent spike indicates the release of a new piece of Star Wars media. What is interesting, is that this graph also reflects my hypothesis that interest in Star Wars has waned as more content gets pumped out with increased frequency.
While I am unable to gauge just how fans react to the announcement of future Star Wars projects, it remains clear that since the release of the first trailer for the sequel trilogy, the number of people viewing the Wikipedia page has waned. The highest number of searches occurred December 18, 2015 with the views totaling in at 631,438, while the lowest number of views occurred September 1, 2022 with the views totaling in at 6,315. These are vastly different amounts, and considering September 1, 2022 passed in the midst of an exciting new Star Wars show coming out, it seems clear that attention to the Star Wars Wikipedia page has gone down since 2015.
That being said, without further analysis or survey, it would be impossible to figure out if this drop in viewership was caused by decreased interest in Star Wars as a franchise or for some other reason. For instance, the number of new fans, those who need to be introduced to the series and thus read the wikipedia page, could be decreasing, while the number of total fans has remained steady. Afterall, there is a finite number of people on the planet, and once everyone knows about Star Wars, what need is there to read about it some more? While this question is intensely speculative and in no way reflects any of the results of my analysis, it does emphasize the idea that viewership of the Wikipedia page is not necessarily correlated with fan’s devotion of attention to Star Wars.
In the end, Star Wars has made a significant impact on the world in terms of entertainment and lining the pockets of Disney investors. It exists as a franchise incapable of failure, regardless of the quality of the content. And over all, it has united fans all over the world under the banner of common interests and will forever breed new excitement for what is to come.
May the Force be with you.
