SendGrid has published data of emails sent during 2023 Cyberweek (November 20th to November 27th, 2023) which shows the most used emojis in email newsletter subject lines. The data is derived from 10.6 billion emails sent during that period.

Top 10 Emojis Used in Email Newsletter Subject Lines

Based on the SendGrid data, which comprises 10.6 billion emails sent during 2023 Cyber week, the following emojis were the most used in email newsletter subject lines:

•  🔥 Fire emoji – 1,013,311,036 (emails sent with the emoji)
• 🎁 Wrapped gift emoji – 975,682,513
• ✨ Sparkles emoji – 862,490,787
• ⏰ Alarm clock emoji – 797,254,705
• 🎉 Party popper emoji – 772,935,690
• 🤩 Smiley emoji – 465,295,866
• 💥 Explosion emoji – 457,705,610
• 👀 eyes looking emoji – 427,480,857
• ⚡ High voltage emoji – 388,343,694
• 😍 Smiling face with heart eyes emoji – 381,831,928

Emojis with the Highest Email Open Rates

Surprisingly, the top 10 most used emojis did not translate into the highest email open rates. The emojis that had the highest email open rates include;

• 📅 Calendar emoji – 71,046,300 emails sent with (19.02%) email open rate
• 🚚 Delivery emoji – 32,059,967 (16.15%)
• Melting Face emoji – 1,116,643 (14.05%)
• 📝 Memo emoji – 9,557,166 (14.04%)
• 🇨🇦 Canadian Flag emoji – 1,192,080 (13.30%)

Limitations

This data underlines the significance of personalization and the use of emojis within subject lines. However, one of the limitations of this data is the absence of a direct comparison between emails using emojis and those without. Such a comparison could offer clearer insights into whether emails with emojis outperform those without them.

The complete report is available on Sendgrid.com.