All Kappa Emotes
Being one of the first emotes added to Twitch chat, Kappa has had over 10 years to build its reputation as one of the most popular Twitch emotes to date. Over those years, we’ve seen quite a few evolutions of the Kappa emote, giving us some fun variations along the way.
Below we’ll go over a brief history of how Kappa came to be, and list out all of the Kappa emotes that are currently available in Twitch chat.
Kappa History
Justin.tv was created in 2007 as a web platform for broadcasting videos. From all of the channels featured on the website, the channel dedicated to games, Twitch, quickly became the most popular on the website. Twitch’s increasing popularity prompted Justin.tv to make a separate website in 2011 which is how Twitch.tv came to be.
An engineer Josh DeSeno was hired to work on Twitch’s chat system in 2009, and following the internal tradition at Justin.tv (the faces of employees would be included on the platform as emotes), a grayscale version of DeSeno’s employee ID became an emote on Twitch. The smug smile that DeSeno has in the picture was a major contributing factor to the emote becoming an alternative to Trollface, which was popular at the time.
The name of the emote came from DeSeno’s love of Japanese mythology and folklore, specifically the turtle-like demons named Kappa.
All Kappa Emote Variations
Here is the official list of all the Kappa emotes available right now through Twitch’s native Twitch chat. This doesn’t include the hundreds of other Kappa variations made by other streamers or BTTV and FrankerFaceZ emotes.
Kappa (Original)
The Kappa emote (or just the word “kappa”) is used either at the end of a message or spammed in the chat to imply sarcasm, irony, or just the act of trolling.
It’s one of the most frequently used native Twitch emotes, daily use of which averages around 1 million.
KappaPride
KappaPride is a variation of the original Kappa emote. This one has a rainbow palette on DeSeno’s face, which in this context denotes the LGBTQ+ pride flag. The emote is used in the chat to either inquire or confirm someone being part of the LGBTQ+. The daily usage of the emote averages around 250,000.
KappaRoss
Another variation of Kappa, KappaRoss features a mirrored variant of Josh DeSeno’s head, rocking Bob Ross’s iconic curly haircut. The emote was added in October 2015, as part of the celebration of Twitch Creative. The emote doesn’t have a particular meaning and rather serves as a tribute to Bob Ross. Emote’s daily usage averages around 150,000.
KappaClaus
Twitch introduced KappaClaus in December 2015. In this variation, DeSeno’s head is edited to have a Santa Claus hat. The emote has the same meaning as Kappa and sees increased usage during the winter holidays. Despite the seasonal connotations, the emote’s daily usage averages around 150,000.
KappaWealth
It’s unclear why and exactly when this emote was introduced. Josh is seen wearing a red hat with two golden coins protruding from the sides.
Despite the mysterious origins and meaning, the emote sees daily average usage of around 150,000.
Keepo
On this one, the familiar face is edited to have long ears and a straw stuck in its mouth resembling the Dota 2 hero Meepo.
This variation is mainly used in chats of Dota 2 related streams. Keepo’s daily usage averages around 200,000.
Golden Kappa
The most gimmicky and elusive native emote on Twitch, Golden Kappa features the original emote in a shiny gold coloring. Multiple theories and myths surround the emote’s appearance in chats and Twitch never officially confirmed or denied any of the claims, making it seem like an elaborate joke by Twitch.
Golden Kappa replaces the original Kappa in the chat seemingly at random and on random channels. Because of the spontaneous nature of the emote, the metrics show low daily usage, but recent spikes on May 13th, 2021, and May 22nd, 2021 registered usage of 2,950 and 1,445 respectively.