Star Wars Timeline Explained
Star Wars: What do BBY and ABY mean?
A quick way to read Star Wars dates, count toward the Battle of Yavin, and separate story time from release order.
The short answer
BBY means Before the Battle of Yavin; ABY means After the Battle of Yavin. Both measure time relative to the destruction of the first Death Star in A New Hope.[2][1]
Mentions the outcome of A New Hope; no later plot reveals.
Count down before Yavin, up after it
The larger a BBY number is, the further back you are. A date of 10 BBY comes before 5 BBY, which comes before 1 BBY. After the battle, the direction feels more familiar: 1 ABY comes before 5 ABY.
| Date | How to read it |
|---|---|
| 10 BBY | Ten years before the Battle of Yavin |
| 5 BBY | Five years before the battle |
| 1 ABY | One year after the battle |
| 5 ABY | Five years after the battle |
A story date is not a release date
BBY and ABY locate events inside the fiction. They do not tell you when a film reached cinemas, when a novel was published, or which story a first-time viewer should experience next.
In the Star Wars guide, use In-world placement for story time and First release for publication or release information. Switch between Chronology and Release to answer those different questions.
Check the continuity as well as the date
A date alone cannot tell you whether two works share a history. Lucasfilm separated the older Expanded Universe stories under the Legends banner when it introduced its unified storytelling approach in 2014.[3]
Story Order keeps continuity labels visible alongside dates. Read both: nearby years are a location on the map, not proof that the stories belong to the same continuity. A broad date or range also should not be read as an exact day-by-day sequence.
Inside the chronology
Go straight to the story
Sources & verification
The abbreviations are checked against the cited secondary explainer; the event and continuity boundary use Lucasfilm sources. Numeric examples illustrate how the notation works and do not assign new dates to stories.
- Lucasfilm: Yavin 4 Databank
Identifies the Battle of Yavin as the attack that destroys the first Death Star.
Primary source · Checked - Rick Stevenson, /Film: BBY and ABY explained
Defines the two abbreviations and their reference point in A New Hope.
Secondary source · Checked - Lucasfilm: The Expanded Universe turns a new page
The 2014 Legends designation and unified storytelling approach.
Primary source · Checked