Star Wars sometimes gets teased by fans for spending way too much time on desert planets while there’s a wealth of colorful, vivid possibilities in a galaxy of limitless imagination. But how much time exactly does George Lucas’ universe spend in the desert? Is it really all that much? Or are people exaggerating?

We have calculated and ranked each live-action Star Wars movie and tv show for how much time is spent on a desert planet relative to the title’s runtime. All calculations are based on the versions streamed on Disney+. The total sand time is how many real hours, minutes, and seconds a desert is on-screen, which we then calculated compared to the overall runtime of each of these titles. The percentage of time spent on desert planets will determine a title’s place in the ranking. So, if a show technically has a higher sand time than a movie, it can still have a lower desert percentage when compared to the show's entire runtime and fall lower on the list.

If our numbers are making your head spin, then you can look at the handy graph we've made at the bottom of this article for an idea of where everything shakes out in the grand scheme of things.

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14. The Empire Strikes Back

Empire Strikes Back

Surprising no one, The Empire Strikes Back has the least amount of desert planet screen time. It doesn’t have any desert planets at all. Not a single one! Not even a grain of sand. Now, an argument could be made that Hoth could constitute an arctic desert. However, the snowstorm endured by Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) and Han Solo (Harrison Ford) demonstrates that there is significant precipitation on Hoth, disqualifying the planet from desert status.

Total sand time: Zilch

Desert percentage: 0%

13. The Last Jedi

Kelly Marie Tran in Star Wars: The Last Jedi
Image via Disney

Same deal as Empire, right? The Last Jedi must be tied for last place along with Empire, because there’s no desert planet in this movie either, right? Oh, but there is. The gambling haven of Canto Bight, visited by Finn (John Boyega) and Rose (Kelly Marie Tran), resides on Cantonica – a desert planet. But Canto Bight is a coastal city, you say? Do we see the ocean in the movie? That body of water is the Sea of Cantonica, the largest artificial ocean in the galaxy. The rest of the planet is desert, and we’re calculating how much screen time is spent on desert planets. Still counts. But with Finn and Rose’s casino romp tallied, The Last Jedi still sits at second-to-last.

Total sand time: 10 minutes, 50 seconds

Desert percentage: 7%

12. Revenge of the Sith

Utapau in Star Wars: Episode 3 — Revenge of the Sith
Image via Lucasfilm

On the surface, The Revenge of the Sith doesn’t seem to spend much time on desert planets – we just have 55 seconds on Tatooine at the very end to bridge the gap between trilogies. That’s because we spend most of our desert screen time below the surface. On a mission to defeat General Grievous, Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor) delves into the watery sinkholes of Utapau – a planet with a windswept desert surface. In addition to Obi-Wan’s later trip to Tatooine to drop off baby Luke with his aunt and uncle, the battle on Utapau brings Revenge in as 12 on this list.

Total sand time: 12 minutes, 22 seconds

Desert percentage: 8.8%

11. Obi-Wan Kenobi

jimmy-smits-ewan-mcgregor-obi-wan-kenobi
Image via Disney+

Speaking of Obi-Wan and Tatooine, you would think a Disney+ series picking up 10 years after from where Revenge left off would be higher on this list, wouldn’t you? For his solo adventure in Obi-Wan Kenobi, old Ben Kenobi spends a significant amount of screen time off-planet, leaving the series mostly sand-free! Without getting into any spoilers, the majority of the Tatooine scenes occur in the first and final episodes of the series. There is some business on an unnamed planet in the finale, with a certain climactic showdown taking place in a rocky wasteland. However, a deserted planet does not inherently make for a desert planet, and the rocky environment does not seem to fit the bill. The total sand time for Obi-Wan Kenobi is more time than some of the titles below, but adjusting for the longer runtime of the TV format versus the film format the percentage is lower.

Total sand time: 46 minutes, 43 seconds

Desert percentage: 16.83%.

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10. The Force Awakens

Daisey Ridley as Rey and BB-8 in Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens
Image via Disney

The results for the first film in the sequel trilogy may be surprising. Much of The Force Awakens' marketing centered around Jakku, and for good reason. Part of the strategy with the sequel trilogy was to reintroduce fans to a new era of Star Wars by calling back to elements from the original trilogy, including a first act on a desert planet. It’s where we meet Rey (Daisy Johnson) and Poe (Oscar Isaac) for the first time, and it’s where the new adventure kicks off. But for all Rey’s talk of needing to get back to Jakku, she never does. Jakku remains the only desert planet in the film.

Total sand time: 25 minutes, 58 seconds

Desert percentage: 18.4%.

9. Rogue One

Rogue One Chirrut Ȋmwe fighting

Gareth Edwards' Rogue One: A Star Wars Story broke the mold by being the first Star Wars film to exist outside the traditional episodic format. However, it did not break the mold when it comes to setting scenes on desert planets. The first act of the film sees Jyn Erso (Felicity Jones) and Cassian Andor (Diego Luna) seek out an Imperial defector on the spiritual birthplace of the Jedi Order, the desert moon of Jedha. They meet new friends, get into trouble, and ultimately have to flee Jedha when the Empire tests the Death Star's super laser on the planet. Although there's plenty of sand in the third act, Scarif is a tropical planet, not a desert planet, why Rogue One is lower on this list.

Total sand time: 27 minutes, 3 seconds

Desert percentage: 19.79%.

8. The Mandalorian

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The inaugural Star Wars series for Disney+, The Mandalorian, became an overnight sensation, but many fans at first thought a show about a Mandalorian bounty hunter besides Boba Fett was a curious choice. Din Djarin (Pedro Pascal) proves to be a nuanced character with his own identity, and with Jon Favreau’s choice to evoke Western themes and aesthetics, Djarin inevitably spends some time – you guessed it – in the desert. Between finding Grogu on Arvala-7, some adventures in both Season 1 and Season 2 on Tatooine, and a brief excursion to Lafete with Boba Fett, the show spends a nice chunk of its time enjoying the sandy landscape.

Total sand time: 3 hours, 13 minutes, and 33 seconds.

Desert percentage: 19.99%

7. Solo

Alden Ehrenreich as Han Solo and Chewbacca in Solo: A Star Wars Story
Image via LucasFilm

Solo’s place on this ranking could be contentious. It's a fun space adventure that does an excellent job of touring us around a vibrant galaxy. After Han (Alden Ehrenreich) completes his infamous feat with the Kessel Run, he and the rest of the Falcon crew arrive at Savareen to finish their smuggling job. They land on a beach coast, because yes, Savareen has many vast oceans – although all of its landmass is desert land, technically qualifying Savareen as a desert planet. If you count that, then obviously the movie spends over a fifth of its time on a desert planet.

Total sand time: 28 minutes, 59 seconds

Desert percentage: 21.16%

6. Return of the Jedi

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In the conclusion to the original Star Wars trilogy, Luke returns to Tatooine to save Han from Jabba the Hutt. The return to Tatooine may not make for the most visually distinct experience, but it does close the circle of Luke’s journey with him returning to Tatooine no longer a naive farmboy, but a wise Jedi Master. The plot to save Han is long and convoluted, and it eats up a lot of screen time for Return of the Jedi. By the time Han is freed from the carbonite and Leia (Carrie Fisher) kills Jabba in the most metal way possible – choking him to death with the very chains he shackles her with we've spent nearly a quarter of the movie on Luke's home planet.

Total sand time: 32 minutes, 7 seconds

Desert percentage: 23.7%

5. The Phantom Menace

duel fates phantom menace

Returning, yet again, to Tatooine, Qui-Gon (Liam Neeson) calls the planet a “haven for those who don’t wish to be found”, yet there seems to be an awful lot of galaxy-shifting events on this backwater planet. In The Phantom Menace, Obi-Wan correctly predicts, “We could be stuck here a very long time.” Between meeting Anakin, preparing him for the big Podrace, the actual race itself, and a desert duel with Darth Maul (Ray Park), Tatooine takes up over a third of the movie's runtime!

Total sand time: 47 minutes, 15 seconds

Desert percentage: 34.5%.

4. A New Hope

Luke Skywalker facing the two suns in Tatooine
Image via 20th Century Studios

The original Star Wars gets to spend as much time in the desert as it wants. It was the first to do it, and it does it well. A New Hope is possibly the only movie to make Tatooine feel like a truly unremarkable speck in a larger galaxy, yet it’s so richly populated with alien creatures and mechanical creations the likes of which moviegoers had never seen before. Though the binary sunset has been riffed upon plenty by other Star Wars movies, nothing reaches the beauty of Luke’s yearnful moment with the horizon. A New Hope actually spends less time on Tatooine than The Phantom Menace, but its shorter runtime means that the movie that hosts this beloved desert planet’s first appearance gets to sit in fourth place.

Total sand time: 43 minutes, 20 seconds

Desert percentage: 34.6%

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3. Attack of the Clones

attack of the clones anakin skywalker padme amidala obi wan kenobi prepare for jedi battle arena

Episode II doesn’t spend as much time on Tatooine as its predecessor, with only 16 minutes and 28 seconds spent with Anakin (Hayden Christensen) and Padmé (Natalie Portman) on the planet. Attack of the Clones earns third place on this list for spending over half an hour on Geonosis, the film’s second desert planet. The climactic third act sees a massive battle erupt on the site of the Separatists’ droid factory, and sweeps out into the sandy dunes of Geonosis. For as much as Anakin hates sand, he can’t seem to stay away from it. Attack of the Clones just barely squeezes out ahead of A New Hope when it comes to desert planet percentage.

Total sand time: 49 minutes, 32 seconds

Desert percentage: 34.62%

2. The Rise of Skywalker

Image via Lucasfilm

The Rise of Skywalker snagging the silver medal is a surprise to be sure, but a welcome one. This ranking may cause you to question how long Rey, Finn, and Poe actually spent on Pasaana; but it’s another planet that pushes The Rise of Skywalker up the list. In the opening sequence, Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) visits the dark desert planet of Exegol, and it’s here that the entire third act of the film takes place. The Resistance squares up against a resurrected Emperor Palpatine (Ian McDiarmid) and his Final Order fleet for about a half-hour. Combined with the first act set on Pasaana, a five-second shot of Jakku, and Rey’s visit to Tatooine in the closing scene we've got the final (hopefully) chapter of the Skywalker saga in second place.

Total sand time: 52 minutes, 0 seconds

Desert percentage: 36.27%

1. The Book of Boba Fett

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Image via Disney+

Unsurprisingly, a series about Boba Fett (Temuera Morrison) filling the power vacuum left behind by Jabba the Hutt conquers the top of this list.The Book of Boba Fett spends its nearly 6-hour runtime mostly set on Tatooine, chronicling the former bounty hunter’s escape from the Sarlacc pit, life with the Tusken Raiders, and his fight to take over Jabba’s old territory. Boba Fett explores Tatooine to an extent no other Star Wars title has attempted and fleshes out the grimy underworld of familiar settings like Mos Espa and Mos Eisley. Though some episodes in the back half pull away from events on Tatooine to follow up with characters from The Mandalorian, Boba Fett holds the spot as number one.

Total sand time: 4 hours, 3 minutes, 13 seconds

Desert percentage: 70.85%

Infographic of the time spent on sand planets by each Star Wars series or movie

So what does this mean for Star Wars as a whole? The collective runtime of every title on this list adds up to 168,552 seconds, and 45,177 of those are desert planet seconds. That's a whopping 12 hours and 33 minutes! Desert planets make up 26.8% of the Star Wars franchise to date – a little over a quarter. Is that really so bad? Given how big of an impact Tatooine has on the Skywalkers, maybe we can ease up on the desert planet jokes just a bit. We spend much more time on other planets, so let's just appreciate the visual variety in the galaxy far, far away.

Infographic of the time spent on sand planets in all star wars Star Wars series and movies