This Emoji Won Most Popular New Emoji, but It Was Never Really a Contest

Emoji are a fun way to communicate with others, and the internet celebrates this with World Emoji Day every July 17 (since that’s the date on the calendar emoji). As part of those celebrations, Emojipedia, an online directory of emoji and their meanings, announces awards for most popular new emoji, most anticipated emoji and even lifetime achievement awards. In my opinion, this year’s winner for Most Popular New Emoji was bound to win.

Based on Emojipedia’s site data, the winner of the Most 2025 Emoji and Most Popular New Emoji is the face with bags under eyes. And I’m not surprised. I mean, look at that beautiful emoji — its expression says so much without any words. 

It’s saying, “I’ve seen enough of this foolishness,” “You’re wrong, but I’m too tired to fight you on this” and so much more all at the same time. The emoji is countless people when they haven’t had their morning cup of coffee, and it’s also the face I make when someone I went to high school with tries to get me to join their multi-level marketing network. What I’m saying is, who hasn’t felt like this emoji at one time or another — or maybe every day for months?

What were other popular new emoji?

The face with bags under eyes was clearly going to win the Most Popular New Emoji award from the start because it’s so relatable and widely understood. The contest for most popular new emoji this year was always a question of which emoji would come in second and third, and Emojipedia said that the splatter emoji came in second with the shovel emoji coming in third. 

The splatter emoji shows a splash of an unknown liquid, and it’s generally purple. Sure, you could use it in innocuous messages about painting, but let’s be real, people will use it in messages on Tinder and other dating apps.

The shovel is a standard shovel. While there’s no known data on how people are using the shovel emoji, I can see this evolving into a way of saying you’re going to bury someone, either beating them really badly in a fight or dropping a lot of scandalous dirt on them. I bet Scandal’s Olivia Pope would have loved the shovel emoji. 

The Emoji Lifetime Achievement Award goes to…

One emoji in particular made history as the youngest-ever emoji to win the Lifetime Achievement Award, and that emoji is the melting face emoji. The emoji hit our devices in 2021, and even then, it was making waves. 

At the time, the New York Times said the melting face emoji arrived at just the right time to represent our collective burnout and dread over the pandemic. The melting face appeared on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, and British GQ said it was all of us.

“Whether I’m having a mid-day panic, sweltering in the summer heat or conveying a humorous, ‘it’s fine, this is fine,’ I’m confident meltmoji has me covered with its ability to clearly yet concisely communicate my intended message,” said CNET senior editor Moe Long. “Its versatility is bar-none.”

People are most excited about this upcoming emoji

The upcoming Emoji 17.0 is set to be released later this year, and it will include emoji like an orca, a Sasquatch and a cartoonish fight cloud. But the award for Most Anticipated Emoji of 2025 goes to the distorted face. It looks like someone’s face viewed through a fisheye lens camera. This emoji’s eyes are bulging, and it looks all around uncomfortable. 

The distorted face is a fine emoji, but I’m not really excited for it. Instead, I’m looking forward to the orca emoji because Free Willy was a great film, and orcas have made a splash in the news the past few years. 

For more on emoji, here are CNET staffers’ favorite and most used emoji, the latest emoji on your device and how to decipher each emoji.