Best Star Wars films

Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith leads the Star Wars ranking with 1473 ELO points over 591 duels, ahead of The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi.

The prequel trilogy's climax claims the top spot, winning 75% of its duels and challenging conventional wisdom about the saga's hierarchy. The Empire Strikes Back, long considered the franchise's creative peak by critics and film historians, trails in second place with 1397 ELO points and a 64% win rate across 727 duels. Return of the Jedi holds third with 1369 ELO points, securing a 62% win rate over 800 duels. The sharpest divide appears between third and fourth: 114 ELO points separate Return of the Jedi from A New Hope, splitting the original trilogy down the middle and revealing a clear preference for the saga's darker, more operatic chapters. Rogue One: A Star Wars Story rounds out the top five at 1232 ELO points. The bottom tells a harsher story. The sequel trilogy occupies the three lowest ranks, with The Last Jedi at ninth, The Rise of Skywalker at tenth with 1004 ELO points and a 28% win rate, and Solo: A Star Wars Story anchoring the list at 874 ELO points.

This ranking draws on 7095 duels submitted by 260 players across 11 contenders. The data was last updated on 10 October 2026. VAINKEURZ builds its rankings from direct comparisons: each vote pits two films against each other, and the accumulated results determine the order. To shape this Star Wars ranking, cast your own votes and see how your preferences move the needle.

Updated on October 10, 2026

How this ranking is computed

Every duel won lifts a contender and every loss drops them, by an amount that depends on the opponent's strength: beating the leader is worth more than beating the last. It is an ELO, the same principle as in chess. Duels are not drawn at random — an adaptive entropy sort puts the least predictable match-ups first, which settles the ranking far faster than a full round robin. A worldwide ranking is only published past 30 completed plays. Known limit: a contender who has faced few opponents keeps an approximate score, and the bottom of the table moves more than the podium.

How our rankings are made →