Video game Emoji

Activities

A classic handheld video game controller, typically depicted with a directional pad, action buttons, and two analog sticks. It represents modern gaming hardware rather than the early, boxy arcade sticks of the past.

Usage Context

Used to signal that someone is currently gaming, looking for players, or discussing the gaming hobby. It is frequently sent alongside 🕹️ when talking about retro hardware or 📺 when describing a home entertainment setup.

History

Added to the Unicode standard in 2010, this icon replaced earlier, platform-specific emojis used on Japanese mobile networks. Its design has evolved to reflect the standard dual-joystick layout that has dominated the industry since the late 1990s.

Details

Glyph

🎮

Unicode

U+1F3AE

Shortcode

:emoji_u1f3ae:

HTML Entity

&#xD83C;&#xDFAE;

Specifications

Vendor Google

Category Activities

Subcategory game

Unicode Version 6.0

Emoji Version 1.0

License CC-BY 4.0

Google Noto License

Emoji graphics by Twitter/X, licensed under CC-BY 4.0

Noto Color Emoji graphics are copyrighted by Google Inc. and licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0. Font files may also be subject to the SIL Open Font License, Version 1.1.

Apache 2.0 SIL OFL 1.1 Noto Repository