The 👌, 😳, and 🙌 emojis among the top 3 most endangered emojis globally
A new report by Superside – a creative subscription service, trusted by the world’s top brands to get exceptional design faster, more reliably, and at scale – has uncovered once popular emojis that are now danger of going ‘extinct’ as emoji use varies by generation and new emojis grow in popularity.
Superside pulled the 100 most popular emojis from 2013 to present day and analyzed which emojis have fallen in popularity by rank to determine the emojis with the highest probability of going extinct.
Using KeywordTool.io, we then analyzed which of these emojis were searched for the least in every country in the world and popular cities across the U.S. to learn which emojis are going extinct in particular regions.
Top 14 most endangered emojis
|
Rank |
Emoji Falling in Popularity |
Average Rank Change Within Top 100 Most Popular Emojis |
|
1 |
👌 |
-66 |
|
2 |
😳 |
-26 |
|
3 |
🙌 |
-18 |
|
4 |
🙈 |
-12 |
|
5 |
✌ |
-11 |
|
6 |
💁 |
-10.5 |
|
7 |
😏 |
-10.5 |
|
8 |
💕 |
-10.5 |
|
9 |
💘 |
-10.5 |
|
10 |
😎 |
-10 |
|
11 |
😱 |
-10 |
|
12 |
😜 |
-9.5 |
|
13 |
😞 |
-5 |
|
14 |
😄 |
-2 |
Table displays the top 14 most endangered emojis across the globe and how many places each has fallen in rank since 2013
We found out that the 👌 ‘okay hand’ emoji takes the No. 1 spot for most unpopular emoji globally, dropping 66 places in its ranking since 2013. The 😳 ‘flushed face’ and 🙌 ‘person raising both hands in celebration’ emojis take the second and third spots. These once-popular emojis are losing their shine as users favor other emojis – likely due to the launch of newer, more relatable emojis and certain ones being used as symbols within hate groups.
The 😏 is the most endangered emoji in the UK
The 😏 ‘smirking face’ is the most unpopular emoji overall in the UK, making a move toward extinction. In Ireland, the 👌 ‘okay hand symbol’ emoji is the most unpopular.
Endangered emojis across the globe 😱
The 😱 ‘face screaming in fear’ emoji is one of the most endangered, with nearly 47% of European countries seeing a decline in its use. Following suit is the 😏 ‘smirking face’ emoji, with nearly 38% of countries seeing a decline in popularity.
Emojis for a new era
As older emojis go out of style, shiny new emojis come in. A plethora of new emojis have been created since they first launched over 25 years ago, but what if we had emojis to convey some of the biggest trends from this era? From the rise of WFH to the now popular girl dinner, you can even bring up a beige flag through an emoji.
Featured Photo by Denis Cherkashin on Unsplash.