Twitch and its chatroom experience have grown famous for using unique and iconic text-based emotes. With some of these tiny pictures seeing years of widespread and frequent use, some have grown to encapsulate the sweeping emotions and attitudes of the entire community. This list will represent the five most popular global Twitch emotes by total usage.
5. BibleThump
This miserable little emote is of the titular Isaac of Edmund McMillan’s The Binding of Isaac, whose tears are seen streaming down his face. With tears playing a popular role in the roguelike’s gameplay, it’s not surprising that this emote has become synonymous with sorrow and crying.
Related: What does Jebaited mean on Twitch? Answered
4. PogChamp
A ubiquitous image with a controversial past. This emote has come to represent excitement to an extreme degree — so extensively that “pog” in some shapes and forms has become a figure of speech. Formerly assuming the likeness of a popular fighting game community member, PogChamp has since changed faces between many of Twitch’s representatives before ultimately transforming into the jubilant komodo we see today.
3. Kappa
This emote predates Twitch in its traditional sense, originating from the streaming site’s predecessor at Justin.tv. Former Justin employee Josh DeSeno’s smug aura now mocks Twitch’s streamers in a blatantly sarcastic way.
2. LUL
A goofy emote representing laughter of any kind, LUL depicts none other than the late John “TotalBiscuit” Bain, a popular esports commentator and video game critic. Originally a subscription-based emote on Bain’s personal Twitch channel, it grew in popularity on the Twitch-based browser extension BetterTTV, later being fully adopted into the site’s culture.
1. TriHard
Three things are certain about TriHard as an emote — it resembles the popular streamer Trihex, it’s been around on Twitch for what virtually feels like forever, and not a soul on or around the site can pinpoint quite exactly what it means. While it is unknown whether people use it to express excitement, enthusiasm, naive confusion, or some other understated purpose, Twitch users have flocked to it as a means of unifying behind one image, whatever that image may be.
