The EmojiEmoji
A Japanese word (絵文字) meaning 'picture character' — small graphical symbols used in digital communication to express ideas, emotions, and objects. Popularity Ladder: Always Moving
Emoji popularity is never static. Every year, a handful of emojis break out — driven by new UnicodeUnicode
Universal character encoding standard that assigns a unique number to every character across all writing systems and symbol sets, including emoji. releases, viral moments on social platforms, cultural shifts, or simply the discovery by a broad audience of something that has existed for years but never hit critical mass.
In 2025, the growth stories are particularly interesting: some new additions from Unicode 15.1 and 16.0 have caught fire, while a few older emojis are enjoying unexpected revivals. Here is the data on which emojis are climbing the fastest.
Methodology Note
Emoji growth data is aggregated from multiple sources: Unicode ConsortiumUnicode Consortium
The non-profit organization that develops and maintains the Unicode Standard, including the process for adding new emoji. usage reports, social platform trend data, third-party analytics services, and keyword trend tools. "Growth" here means growth in usage share — the percentage of emoji traffic a given emoji represents — relative to the same period in 2024. Absolute volume is always rising as global internet access expands.
Top Fastest Growing Emojis in 2025
🥹 Face Holding Back Tears (Unicode 14.0)
Growth trajectory: Strong sustained rise since 2022, still accelerating in 2025
Introduced in Unicode 14.0 (September 2021) and deployed widely on major platforms in 2022, 🥹 is now firmly in the top 25 most-used emojis globally and still growing. The face — eyes glistening, on the verge of happy tears — fills a communicative gap that no prior emoji quite covered: overwhelming cuteness, touching moments, or emotion too tender to be captured by 😢 or 😊.
On TikTok, 🥹 is standard in comments on heartwarming videos. On Instagram, it appears in captions about meaningful personal milestones. Its growth has been unusual in that it has sustained rather than peaked after initial adoption.
2025 usage context: "This is so sweet 🥹", "I can't take it 🥹❤️", responses to wholesome content
🫠 Melting Face (Unicode 14.0)
Growth trajectory: Breakout 2022, accelerated through 2025
The melting face emoji 🫠 depicts a face liquefying downward, and it has become one of the most versatile new additions to the emoji vocabulary. It expresses: overwhelming heat, surreal stress, embarrassing situations, existential dread rendered humorously, or simply "I am not okay but in a relatable way."
What makes 🫠 remarkable is that it created a new emotional category — not just sadness, not just stress, but the specific sensation of dissolving under a situation you cannot quite handle.
2025 ranking position: Estimated top 50 across all platforms, top 20 on TikTok comments
🫶 Heart Hands (Unicode 14.0)
Growth trajectory: Rapid rise in 2023–2024, mainstream in 2025
🫶 (two hands forming a heart shape) has become the dominant "appreciation" emoji of 2025. It carries warmth and gratitude without the intensity of ❤️, making it ideal for creator-to-audience or friend-to-friend appreciation contexts. K-pop fan communities and content creators have driven adoption, and it now appears in mainstream usage across all demographics.
2025 ranking position: Top 30 globally, higher among users under 30
🫨 Shaking Face (Unicode 15.0)
Growth trajectory: Emerging, rapid acceleration mid-2025
One of the newer additions — 🫨 shows a face vibrating with apparent shock or disbelief. It went through the standard initial meme-heavy adoption phase when first deployed on major platforms and is now accelerating toward mainstream use. The emoji is often paired with news commentary, surreal situations, or reactions to unexpected information.
2025 growth rate: Among the top 10 fastest-growing emojis by week-over-week metrics in mid-2025
🩷 Pink Heart (Unicode 15.0)
Growth trajectory: Strong and consistent since deployment
The pink heart 🩷 filled a color gap in the heart emoji palette and has been adopted rapidly, particularly among younger demographics and on Instagram. It occupies a softer, more delicate register than ❤️ — used for gentleness, affection without intensity, or a "cute" aesthetic tone.
Primary use cases: Aesthetic posts, soft affirmations, platonic friend communication, brand use in beauty and lifestyle verticals
🩵 Light Blue Heart (Unicode 15.0)
Growth trajectory: Steady moderate growth
Like the pink heart, the light blue heart 🩵 serves the color-coding desires of social media users. It has been adopted in coastal/ocean aesthetics, K-pop fan communities (particularly associated with certain fandoms), and as a general "calm, cool, friendly" signal. Its growth is slower than 🩷 but consistent.
🫡 Saluting Face (Unicode 14.0)
Growth trajectory: Moderate growth with viral acceleration on X
🫡 started as a face performing a military salute but rapidly acquired an ironic meaning on social platforms: "understood, boss" or "yes sir" with varying levels of genuine and sarcastic compliance. On X, it became associated with sycophancy commentary. On TikTok, it signals compliance with an instruction in a self-deprecating way.
Peak moment: Significant spike when used in commentary around workplace and authority dynamics in early 2025
🪩 Mirror Ball (Unicode 14.0)
Growth trajectory: Slow start, accelerating in 2025
The mirror ball emoji 🪩 took longer than most to find its niche. It emerged as an aesthetic emoji for disco, nightlife, and celebration content, but its real growth has come from being associated with a specific "chaotic fun" vibe in social media aesthetics. Paired with ✨ and 💃, it signals a particular kind of joyful irreverence.
🫸🫷 Rightward Pushing Hand / Leftward Pushing Hand (Unicode 15.0)
Growth trajectory: Rapid adoption for interactive use
These two hands facing each other 🫸🫷 are used together to create a "pushing together" or "fighting" implication, and they have become popular in meme formats and game-adjacent content where characters or ideas are pitted against each other.
Growth Data Table: 2025 Fastest Risers
| Emoji | Name | Unicode Version | Est. YoY Usage Growth | Primary Context |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 🥹 | Face holding back tears | 14.0 | +35–45% | Wholesome reactions |
| 🫠 | Melting face | 14.0 | +40–55% | Stress, overwhelm, humor |
| 🫶 | Heart hands | 14.0 | +50–65% | Appreciation, warmth |
| 🫨 | Shaking face | 15.0 | +80–100% | Shock, disbelief |
| 🩷 | Pink heart | 15.0 | +60–80% | Soft affection, aesthetics |
| 🩵 | Light blue heart | 15.0 | +45–60% | Calm, fandom use |
| 🫡 | Saluting face | 14.0 | +30–40% | Ironic compliance |
| 🪩 | Mirror ball | 14.0 | +25–35% | Nightlife, fun aesthetics |
| 🫸🫷 | Push hands | 15.0 | +70–90% | Meme formats |
| 🧌 | Troll | 14.0 | +20–30% | Internet culture |
Estimates based on aggregated trend data; individual platform figures vary.
Why These Emojis Are Growing
Several factors explain 2025's fastest growers:
1. Emotional nuance gap-filling 🥹 and 🫠 both succeeded because they described emotional states that previously had no clean emoji equivalent. Users actively seek new vocabulary that matches how they actually feel.
2. Unicode 14.0 maturation Many Unicode 14.0 emojis (September 2021) are now reaching full platform deployment maturity — available on every major device — and users who waited are now adopting them in volume.
3. TikTok as launch platform Emojis that find a home in TikTok comment culture grow faster than those that don't. TikTok's algorithm surfaces highly-commented content, creating feedback loops that amplify specific emojis.
4. Color palette expansion The new heart colors (🩷, 🩵, 🩶) gave users expressive tools that immediately filled real communication needs — the emoji equivalent of adding new colors to a crayon box.
Emojis That Grew Fast but Peaked
Not all rising emojis sustain growth. Some follow a spike-and-plateau curve:
- 🤌 (pinched fingers) — exploded in 2021–2022 via memes; now stable but not growing
- 🫣 (peeking face) — strong initial adoption in 2022; growth flat in 2025
- 🫤 (face with diagonal mouth) — found its niche but didn't sustain growth momentum
Understanding this lifecycle helps predict which of 2025's rising emojis will become durable vocabulary versus temporary memes.
Explore More on EmojiFYI
- View real-time emoji popularity data with the Emoji Stats Tool
- Compare how fast-growing emojis look across different platforms with the Compare Tool
- Browse emojis by when they were added to the Unicode standardUnicode Standard
The complete character encoding system maintained by the Unicode Consortium, defining characters, properties, algorithms, and encoding forms. at Emoji Versions - Search emojis by name or keyword to find rising emojis in any category