From the rise of “AI slop” to the plague of the “6 7” meme, 2025 was full of digital communication evolutions worth watching. Arguably, though, no other cultural signifier demonstrates how digital language is changing quite like our beloved emojis. As 2025 comes to a close (🎉), let’s take a look at which of these expressive icons got the digital world typing, clicking, and sharing most.
Our Explore+ analysis of the world’s 10 leading emojis, as represented by Emojitracker at the time of writing, looked at their usage across more than a dozen platforms, including X, Reddit, Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest.
The 10 emojis we analyzed were:
1. ❤️ Red Heart
2. ✅ Check Mark Button
3. ✨ Sparkles
4. 🔥 Fire
5. 😭 Loudly Crying Face
6. 😂 Face with Tears of Joy
7. 😊 Smiling Face with Smiling Eyes
8. 💀 Skull
9. ⭐ Star
10. 🫶 Heart Hands
What we found underscores that marketers can’t take emoji meanings and usage for granted in their messaging and communications. Deeper, audience-focused analyses are key to understanding how to truly connect with target audiences, no matter who they are or where they live online and off.
What was the top emoji of 2025?
Our Explore+ analysis revealed that 😭 (Loudly Crying Face) was the most used emoji of 2025 by far, racking up about 814 million social media mentions from January 1 to December 15, 2025.
As emoji fanatics will remember, 😭 originally overtook 😂 (Face with Tears of Joy) for the top emoji spot in 2024 after ranking second in 2023. Now, 😭’s continued reign highlights its emerging replacement of 😂 in expressions of laughter or amusement, as well as its versatility in representing any reactions of emotional overwhelm.
Top keywords reinforce this interpretation:
- life (7.8 million mentions)
- everything (5.8 million mentions)
- heart (5.0 million mentions)
For example, the above post used 😭 to signal the overwhelming cuteness of the cuddly cat and situation pictured. It was the most engaging X post mentioning 😭 of 2025, reflecting that emoji framing’s resonance with netizens across the platform.
Breaking down mentions over time reveals some interesting trends. First, usage of 😂, 🔥, ❤️, ✨, and ✅ all trended up in 2025, suggesting not only increased popularity but also potentially increased overall emoji usage across social media.
And while 😭 reigned nearly all of the year, 🔥made significant gains in the second half of 2025, surging in popularity beginning in August. The flame symbol even briefly took the top spot in September and at the beginning of December, thanks in part to some high-profile mentions.
Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, used the emoji in a September 15 Instagram post celebrating her husband’s birthday. Plus, Cristiano Ronaldo used the emoji in two highly engaged X posts celebrating key wins in the 2026 World Cup qualifier games.
Overall, the dominance of multi-functional symbols like 😭and 🔥reveals just how fluid emoji usage has become across contexts and over time. For marketers and brands, monitoring when emojis become popular and how they are used can offer insight into how different online groups develop and communicate meaning.
What was the top emoji on each social platform in 2025?
Our analysis found that 😭 is the top emoji on X with 25.4% SOV, only slightly beating 🔥 at 22%. On Reddit, however, 😭 is neck and neck with 😂 — both have about 30% SOV each.
YouTube loves the ❤️. With about 34% SOV, its usage was more than double that of the next most popular emojis on the platform, 😂 and 🔥.
Most interesting to see, though, is which platforms favor emojis beyond the overall top four. Sina Weibo stands out for being the undisputed home of ⭐. Meanwhile, Pinterest favors the sparkle, which, as we noted last year, is the platform’s go-to decoration, signifying aspirational appeal and charm.
Also notable are the generational nuances that emerge from this platform breakdown. Comparing Twitch to Facebook gives us an estimation of how different age groups’ communication styles may diverge.
For example, on Twitch, where over 40% of users are between the ages of 16 and 24, 🔥has a higher SOV (32.2%) than on any of the other platforms. This likely mirrors younger generations’ use of terms like “That’s fire” to express approval or admiration.
💀 also has the highest SOV (6.9%) on the gaming streaming platform compared to the others, reflecting a parallel dynamic. Younger netizens use 💀similarly to 😭in reaction to something they find extremely funny, shocking, off-putting, and more. However, that expression can be lost on older generations, who may see the skull as signifying death or spookiness.
Facebook, on the other hand, has a much broader user base and some of the highest usage rates in the 65+ age group, according to our Digital 2026 report. The “legacy” social platform has the highest SOV of 😂(47.1%) and ❤️(23.1%), two more “traditional” emojis with relatively historically constant, non-context-dependent meanings.
For marketers, the takeaway here is that emojis can be both platform- and generation-specific. Tailoring content for audiences by social channels must also include a closer look at the role emojis play in signaling tone, sentiment, and belonging.
Make sure your strategies and analyses are informed by reliable data! Download the Digital 2026 report for definitive stats on how the world searches, chats, and shops online.
What are the top emojis in different countries?
According to our Explore+ analysis of geolocated posts:
- 😂was the most mentioned emoji in the US, Nigeria, the UK, Canada, and Ghana
- 🔥was the top emoji in India
- 😭 was the leading emoji in South Africa, Indonesia, and the Philippines
Our breakdown also revealed some of the regional differences and similarities of emoji usage around the world. For example, the neighboring countries of the US and Canada have similar emoji SOVs, with 😭, 🔥, 😂, and ❤️leading usage in comparable proportions. Similarly, the nearby nations of Nigeria and Ghana have distinctly high usage of 😂, while Indonesia and the Philippines both have markedly higher usage of ✨.
These trends highlight how, although social media enables cross-cultural exchange like never before in human history, geographic specificity cannot be overlooked.
Does emoji usage vary by age and gender?
According to our Explore+ analysis, yes. The majority of mentions of 😭came from female users, while the majority of mentions of 😂and 🔥came from male users.
The 😭 emoji was used 452 million times by female-identified users, based on self-reported or inferred gender information, with 74% of usage coming from the 18–24 age group.
By contrast, mentions of 🔥 and 😂 skew predominantly male. About 64% of 🔥 mentions and 62% of 😂 mentions came from male users. Both were heavily driven by 18–24-year-olds, with a notably smaller—but still meaningful—share among users aged 25–34. These patterns suggest that emotionally expressive emojis resonate more strongly with younger female audiences, while action- and humor-driven emojis are more closely associated with younger male ones.
For marketers, deeper analysis of emoji usage across not only demographics but also locations and online communities can reveal opportunities for personalized and targeted messaging.
What marketers can learn from emoji usage trends
Our Explore+ analysis found:
- 😭 was the most used emoji of 2025, as it has become increasingly popular for expressing highly emotional reactions
- 🔥is also a highly popular meme that is steadily gaining in usage
- Emoji usage varies widely across demographics, locations, and even social platforms
Overall, marketers can’t afford to make assumptions in any form of digital communication, emojis included. Lack of audience understanding can result in content that misses the mark, but data-driven consumer intelligence can help brands stay ahead of the constant evolutions in emoji usage and meaning.
Explore+ allows organizations to not only extract key insights like these at scale, but also tailor them across audience segments. Ready to see how your audience digitally communicates and emotes in real time? Fill out the form below for a free demo showing you firsthand how to turn consumer signals into insights you can 🏃with.
FAQ: Emoji usage trends in 2025
What was the most used emoji of 2025?
Meltwater’s Explore+ analysis determined 😭(Loudly Crying Face) was the most used emoji of 2025, with roughly 814 million social media mentions. In recent years, it has overtaken 😂(Face with Tears of Joy) as the dominant expression of humor and emotional intensity.
Does emoji usage vary by social platform?
Yes. Meltwater’s Explore+ analysis determined emoji usage differs significantly by platform. For example, in 2025, 😭(Loudly Crying Face) and 🔥(Fire) led on X, ❤️(Red Heart) dominated YouTube, ⭐(Star) was most popular on Sina Weibo, and ✨(Sparkle) was especially common on Pinterest.
Does emoji usage vary by country?
Yes. Meltwater’s Explore+ analysis of geolocated social media posts in 2025 found:
- 😂(Face with Tears of Joy) was the most mentioned emoji in the US, Nigeria, the UK, Canada, and Ghana
- 🔥(Fire) was the top emoji in India
- 😭(Loudly Crying Face) was the leading emoji in South Africa, Indonesia, and the Philippines
Why do emoji usage trends matter for marketers?
Emoji usage and meaning varies across audiences. Misusing them can cause messages to miss the mark, while data-driven insights like those from Meltwater help brands communicate more effectively with target audiences.
How can brands and marketers track emoji trends in real time?
Tools like Meltwater’s Explore+ allow brands to monitor emoji usage, sentiment shifts, and emerging cultural signals at scale, enabling more relevant and audience-aware messaging.
