Editorial: Star Wars Dipped Its Toes Into a Surprising Corner of the Internet, and It Paid Off

In an unexpected move, the official Star Wars YouTube channel posted three lofi ambiance mixes to their channel, beginning in late 2022.



The videos contained various themes and lofi tunes (or no tunes), starting with “Life Day - Star Wars Lofi” on November 17, 2022, featuring Kashyyyk and numerous Wookiees wearing Life Day robes and holding Life Day orbs. This particular, digitally created lofi beat contains what sounds like a harp, a pan flute, occasional Wookiee talk, and birds chirping. It’s cheerful, relaxing, and meditative. The perfect combination for background work or reading music.

For those who spend a lot of time on YouTube, lofi beats (in all their infinite varieties) will be very familiar. And of course, true to form for Star Wars fans, we have carved a specific Star Wars-themed cog for us in the lofi content machine. Fans may recognize the indisputably popular “Star Wars - Lofi Hip Hop” video of Ahsoka studying in the Jedi Temple, from channel Closed on Sunday. This video shows Ahsoka sitting at a desk studying, a rainy Coruscant night filled with traffic visible through the window next to her, a tooka sleeping on the window sill, and a few notable items next to her, such as one of her lightsabers and a datapad. The video cycles through various lofi riffs on familiar Star Wars songs, and is a perfectly cozy way to encourage yourself to focus. As someone who has logged many hours at her work computer with this video in the background, it’s a small thing that helps. Check it out below:

That the official Star Wars channel has decided to create their own lofi beats videos, complete with gentle movements, such as rippling water and flying birds, is a fun and surprising nod to this unique corner of YouTube. This surprise is captured in the comments on “Life Day - Star Wars Lofi” with many variations of “Lofi? From the official Star Wars channel?” and a few instances of Palpatine’s famous quote from The Phantom Menace: “A surprise to be sure, but a welcome one.”



The second lofi mix video released December 12, 2022, on the Star Wars channel -- “Snowy Starkiller Base - Star Wars Lofi” features falling snow, First Order troopers roasting marshmallows over an open fire, and a snowman wearing a First Order helmet. A wintry, and equally cozy addition to what many fans, myself included, now hoped would become a full collection.

The most recent ambiance video Star Wars has posted is “Star Wars by the Fire: Mandalorian and Grogu'' and features Din Djarin and Grogu sitting next to a fire on Tatooine. In this video, you see a Tusken riding a bantha across the horizon, the occasional squadron of X-wings taking off, and naturally, two setting suns. Departing from the previous two lofi mix videos, viewers only hear the soft crackle of the fire and gentle desert breeze, no music. A Mandalorian-themed version of ASMR ambiance is the 'pièce de résistance' of the collection, clocking in at more than 200k views so far.

It’s important to provide some context to this view count and note here that these videos do very well. Outside of trailer releases, many of the videos that Star Wars posts on their official channel reach views ranging from 20k to 70k on average. The lofi videos have reached, at the time of this publication, 129k, 168k, and 206k respectively, well outperforming the traditional content on the channel.



I can’t help but think these results are being met with smiles and perhaps a small amount of surprised confusion from the team at Lucasfilm. For my part, I applaud and encourage it. This type of content is a friendly response to the fandom that feels lighthearted and relevant, leaving behind the cringe-inducing memes and other social media bandwagons we sometimes see companies hop on in order to relate to their audience.



And if you’re wondering, yes, this whole editorial was written with the soft sounds of fire crackling in the background and Din and Grogu keeping me company.



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