As every year, the Unicode Consortium has analyzed, compiled, and released a list of the most used emojis in 2021. It seems that this year, most of us were “laughing to the point of tears.”
“According to data collected by the Unicode Consortium, a non-profit organization responsible for digitizing languages around the world, the ‘laughing to the point of tears’ emoji accounts for over 5% of the total emojis used,” Jennifer Daniel, President of Unicode Emoji, wrote in a post on the Unicode blog.

In second place on the list is the heart emoji, and the third position belongs to the laughing emoji but in a more excited mood. Below is the list of the ten most used emojis in 2021 compiled by the Unicode Consortium.
1. 😂 (laughing to the point of tears)
2. ❤️ (heart)
3. 🤣 (rolling on the floor laughing)
4. 👍 (thumbs up)
5. 😭 (crying)
6. 🙏 (praying)
7. 😘 (blowing a kiss)
8. 🥰 (smiling face with hearts)
9. 😍 (heart eyes)
10. 😊 (smiling face with smiling eyes)
Overall, the emojis most used by internet users in the past year all carried a positive tone. Despite the challenges of 2021, with the COVID-19 pandemic taking away many things from us, people remained ready to express optimism and spread positivity to many more. The only emoji with a negative connotation is the crying emoji in fifth place, painting a year filled with many events; however, in the end, everything will still get better!