Twitch has removed a number of fan-favorite emotes from being used, including one themed on Ironmouse, Kai Cenat, and another for Ibai.
If you head into Twitch chat as a new viewer, it can easily be overwhelming. Everyone has their own unique way of chatting, be it through emote spam, long-winded copy-pastas, or actually trying to have a normal conversation.
Spamming emotes has long been one of the most popular ways to communicate in Twitch chat, with everyone having their favorite emote. Each channel has unique emotes too, but there are plenty of global emotes that can be used anywhere by anyone.
At times, Twitch has purged a number of these emotes at random. It doesn’t really come with any warning, so your favorite might just disappear one day.
Twitch removes 34 emotes in January 2026
Well, that has been the case as of January 7. As per Stream Database, Twitch has removed 34 global emotes, including the popular PotFriend.
Additionally, IronmouseLuv, StreamerU, and KingWorldCup, emotes based on Ironmouse, Kai Cenat, and Ibai have also been caught up in the purge.
Ironmouse’s emote had been added for November’s VTuber week, while Kai’s Streamer University and Mafiathon 3 streams ended back in May and October, respectively. So, some might argue that it’s about time they were removed.
“RIP pot friend,” Bandai Namco US posted with a crying emoji attached. Sad that PotFriend is gone BUT it was also such a low-quality blurry emote, it looked awful when gigantified,” another said.
“Wait wasn’t the ironmouse one of the newer added global emotes? So it’s surprising they are purging it,” another quizzed.
There have been suggestions that, for many of the emotes, they were a part of sponsorship deals that have since come to an end. That comes as emotes for McDonald’s, EA SPORTS FC, Star Wars, and Fall Guys have all been removed in this wave.
