Google Searches

• "Disney Plus" was the top-trending overall search in the US, boosted by Baby Yoda's popularity. "Baby Yoda" topped the list of baby-related searches, beating out "Royal Baby" despite the hype associated with the latter.
• At its peak in April, "Royal Baby" still received only about 75% of the searches that "Baby Yoda" did in its peak in the first week of December.
• Baby Yoda has been trending down since its peak and currently receives less than half as many searches; interest in Disney Plus and The Mandalorian has similarly dropped off, though with a brief rise during the holiday season; we hypothesize that was due to people on vacation deciding to binge-watch the show.
• Utah proved to be the state with the most Google searches for Baby Yoda, followed by Rhode Island, Colorado, Oregon, and Washington state. The fewest searches came from Alabama, Hawaii, the District of Columbia, Georgia, Louisiana, and Mississippi.

Social Media Popularity

• The average article about The Mandalorian received 1,671 social media interactions in November 2019, due almost entirely to Baby Yoda's popularity. All told, Baby Yoda saw 2.28 million social media interactions in his first month.
• For context, articles about Presidential hopeful, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, only got an average of 496 interactions each, just over a quarter as many, while Bloomberg and Patrick got only a tenth as many interactions.
• The #BabyYoda hashtag has been more enduring, though it has experienced a slow decline in popularity. Presently, it sees between 100 to 300 tweets an hour.
• However, the hashtag is virtually unused outside of the US.
• The most popular hashtags seen together with #BabyYoda are #StarWars, #Yoda, #Jedi, #starwarsfan, #love, #handmade, #cute, and #babymobile.

Merchandise Delays

• Due to the secrecy surrounding the character before The Mandalorian debuted, merchandise of the character is still not available through official channels.
• This parallels the merchandising situation of the original Star Wars (now A New Hope) in which toys were not available by Christmas of 1977 despite high demand. This ultimately did not hurt sales of the toys, as evidenced by gross sales of over $100 million for toys of the first movie.
• Stephen J. Sansweet, an author and former Lucasfilm exec, writes that "true consumer-driven demand, not some false sense of need created by a massive advertising campaign or hype, became what propelled the products" of the original Star Wars.
• According to Richard Gottlieb, founder of Global Toy Group, toy prototypes are typically revealed 15 months before their target Christmas season, making it almost impossible that Baby Yoda would not have been leaked if Disney had tried to have them ready in time for Christmas 2019.
• Stephanie Wissink, a Jeffries consumer products analyst, believes that Disney withheld the toys to "create excitement."

The Imperial Merch

• Within weeks of Baby Yoda's revelation in-show, "the online Disney store had available for purchase some simple-to-make items: T-shirts and phone cases with the character’s image and bobbleheads." The official page can be found here.
• Other Mandalorian toys, such as a simple Lego set and a Nerf "rocket gauntlet," notably, do not feature The Child in any way.

Plushie Wars

• Delays in official merchandising resulted in several individuals selling unlicensed Baby Yoda plushies on Etsy.
• Disney issued several takedown orders on accounts using the words 'Star Wars,' 'Mandalorian,' and 'Yoda,' prompting Etsy to suspend the listings.
• Disney has begun taking pre-orders on its own, official Baby Yoda plushie, but these will not be available until March 1, 2020.

Build-A-Baby-Yoda

•  Build-A-Bear CEO Sharon Price John debuted the stuffed animal at the ICR Conference in Orlando, Florida on January 14, 2020.
• "I'm excited to share we will be one of the first companies to provide the digital and internet phenomenon who is trending higher than all the presidential candidates combined," she said.
• Business Insider notes that "high-profile partnerships with companies like Disney and Lucasfilm are crucial to Build-A-Bear's business as customers seek out iconic characters in stuffed-animal form."

Funko Pop Toy

• A Funko Pop Baby Yoda toy is being sold on Amazon and has jumped to the #1 slot, with a larger version in the #3 slot, despite the fact that the toy will not actually be available until May 15, 2020.
• A Funko representative told Business Insider that "fans, press, and retailers have been absolutely blown away by the response" to the toy.
• According to showrunner Jon Favreau, Disney deliberately hid evidence for Baby Yoda to avoid spoilers before the series aired, which involved secretly sending materials to their retail partners ahead of time.

• "Disney is hunting down the most popular Baby Yoda toys on Etsy." Several Etsy sellers have been selling unauthorized Baby Yoda plushies ahead of Disney partners releasing official merchandise, prompting Disney to issue takedown notices.
• "Disney is finally selling a cute Baby Yoda plush, but it won’t arrive anytime soon." Fans will have to wait until March 1, 2020, to get an official plushie of the character.
• " Build-A-Bear will debut a Baby Yoda stuffed animal as customers scramble to get their hands on toys based on the adorable character from 'The Mandalorian'." CEO Sharon Price John made the announcement while holding the stuffed animal.
• "George Lucas met Baby Yoda and the results were adorable." Mandalorian showrunner Jon Favreau tweeted out a picture of Star Wars creator George Lucas holding the Baby Yoda set puppet. This sparked a new round of memes celebrating the picture.
• "Baby Yoda Has Conquered the World." This article describes the history of Baby Yoda, including show creators having initial concerns that the set puppet wouldn't be convincing enough, followed by an overview of the enthusiastic fan reactions.
• "Baby Yoda: Everything we know about The Mandalorian star." A FAQ of sorts from CNET, focused on the in-story lore behind the character, at least what little has been revealed so far.
• "What is Baby Yoda?" An article from TechRadar which explores both the in-story lore (including an in-depth discussion of the fan theory that Baby Yoda is a clone of Yoda himself) and real-world impact of Baby Yoda.
• "Baby Yoda Is Your God Now." An in-depth look at the character and his impact from the New York Times.
• "Baby Yoda Has a Name, and It Isn't Baby Yoda." Favreau hasn't revealed the name yet, only that The Child (the character's official name) isn't actually a baby Yoda, who is a Force Ghost at this point in the Star Wars timeline.
• "Baby Yoda isn't actually a baby Yoda, Jon Favreau says." Instead, the name caught on because it's the "easiest, shortest, most hashtaggable way" to identify The Child, according to The Mandalorian's showrunner.
• "People Are Ready to 'Die for' The Mandalorian's Adorable New Addition to the Star Wars Family." Time Magazine examines the memes and other fan reactions to Baby Yoda.
• "Humans Evolved to Love Baby Yoda." The Wall Street Journal looks at why fans find Baby Yoda to be so adorable.
• "Illustrator Imagines Baby Yoda Eating All the Junk Food We Know and Love at Disneyland." Illustrator J. Shari Ewing has created a series of Baby Yoda portraits which show The Child eating different foods, including a Micky Mouse-shaped chocolate.
• "This Artist Hilariously Reimagined Every Disney Princess as Baby Yoda." Crystal Ro, an editor and artist for Buzzfeed, has drawn Baby Yoda wearing the signature dresses of nine different Disney princesses, including Belle, Snow White, and Mulan.
• "People are using makeup to transform themselves into Baby Yoda." Many people are posting pictures and tutorial videos of themselves on social media, including Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok, transforming themselves into Baby Yoda using makeup.
• "Baby Yoda: the Mandalorian’s adorable alien co-star, explained." An early article (from November) on the character and his popularity from Vox.
• "The Baby Yoda show ends today. To celebrate, we ranked his scene partners." An overview of Baby Yoda's co-characters on The Mandalorian at the end of Season 1 from the LA Times.
• "The Mandalorian Boss Jon Favreau Confirms: 'Baby Yoda' Is Not [Spoiler]." This article's title is a bit of a tease, as the article itself simply re-confirms that The Child is not Yoda, who died in Return of the Jedi, before the events of the show. However, he may still be a relative and the possibility that he is a clone is not addressed.
• "He punched Baby Yoda, and people called him a monster." Actor Adam Pally finds his character become one of the most hated villains in television history after a scene in which Baby Yoda bites him and he punches The Child in turn.
• "The Mandalorian actor reveals Baby Yoda cost the Star Wars team a huge amount of money," about $5 million, in fact. Pally tells the story of how Favreau told him that after the first take of the infamous punching scene and how that made him so nervous that he messed up the next several takes.
• "A Baby Yoda mural has appeared in the East Village." Street artist Will Power painted the character outside of the East Village's Second Avenue subway stop, to the joy and acclaim of passerby.
• "12 Cincinnati Soups Baby Yoda Would Love." This article has nothing to do with the character other than the title, a picture, and brief mentions sprinkled among the soup descriptions, but it shows just how far the phenomenon has gone.

• We have compiled a total of 50 Baby Yoda memes and GIFs in the attached project spreadsheet, with the GIFs starting at slide 40. Unsurprisingly, nearly all memes play off of the character's incredible cuteness and expressiveness, with many posters using the Child as a stand-in for their younger selves.