Rarest Fortnite Emotes Ranked by Last Time in the Shop

The rarest Fortnite emotes are the ones that have been out of the Item Shop the longest, and the champion is Fresh, which last went on sale on 21 November 2018. It is about eight years gone now, and the next emote in the ranking left the shop more than a year and a half later.

Rarity in Fortnite is not one thing, so the ranking below counts only emotes that were actually sold and then taken away. Battle pass emotes that never went on sale and one-off event emotes get their own sections further down.

What Makes Fortnite Emotes Rare

Three different things get called rare, and they are worth keeping apart. An emote that rotated out of the shop years ago will come back one day. An emote that was a battle pass reward was never for sale to begin with, so there is no shop to wait for.

The ranking in the next section covers the first row only, because it is the only kind where "how long since it was last seen" is a meaningful number. Every figure is measured to 8 November 2026 and rounded to the nearest half year, and it reflects shop history up to mid-October 2026, so an emote that has surfaced since then will have dropped out of the order.

The Rarest Fortnite Emotes, Ranked by Last Shop Date

Each row gives the V-Bucks price, the day the emote was first released, and the day it was last in the shop. The final column is how long it has been away. Higher rows have been gone longer.

Prices are the original shop prices. Fresh is the lone 800 V-Bucks entry because 800 was the price Epic attached to Epic-rarity emotes in the early years, while Rare emotes cost 500 and Uncommon ones 200. Buckets and Flex On ‘Em left on the very same day, 26 March 2022, so their order in the table is arbitrary.

Fresh and the Lawsuit Timeline

Fresh is the Carlton dance from the sitcom The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. It was released on 16 December 2017 at 800 V-Bucks and last sold on 21 November 2018.

The actor Alfonso Ribeiro, who made the dance famous, sued Epic Games on 17 December 2018, less than a month after Fresh left the shop. The suit was later withdrawn, and Fresh has not returned in the years since. Epic has never given a reason for keeping it out, so treat any link between the two events as an inference rather than a fact.

That gap is why Fresh sits alone at the top. Epic’s Icon Series line, which sells emotes tied to real-world names, accounts for several of the rows lower in this ranking.

Emotes That Were on Sale for a Few Days at Most

Some emotes were rare from the day they launched, because Epic sold them for a very short window. The dates in the table tell the story without any extra counting.

• Head Banger arrived on 22 April 2020 as part of the Travis Scott Astronomical set at 300 V-Bucks, and was gone by 27 April.
• Zombie Shambles was released and last seen on the same day, 6 November 2020, at 200 V-Bucks.
• Stuck is an Icon Series emote at 500 V-Bucks that ran on 6 and 7 September 2021 and has not been back.

A one-day run is the purest form of scarcity in the game. Nobody who missed Zombie Shambles in 2020 had a second chance to see it offered, which is why it outranks emotes that were around for months.

Licensed and Collab Emotes Gone Since 2021

A cluster of emotes tied to licensed names left the shop in 2021 and never came back. Each one is tied to an outside name, so a return depends on that partner as well as on Epic.

• It’s Complicated (500 V-Bucks) was released on 25 August 2020 and last seen on 21 August 2021.
• Pele’s Air Punch (200 V-Bucks) is the licensed footballer emote, released 24 January 2021 and last seen on 27 September 2021.
• I Ain’t Afraid (300 V-Bucks) was the Ghostbusters tie-in, on sale from 19 November 2021 until 1 December 2021.
• Freezing Burst came with the Kratos collaboration, released on 4 December 2020 and last seen on 19 March 2021, sold only inside the Kratos bundle.

Freezing Burst sits outside the ranking table because it had no standalone price, only a place in a bundle. By date alone it would land between Zombie Shambles and It’s Complicated.

Shop Staples That Have Been Missing Since 2022

The next group is the one that surprises people. These were ordinary shop emotes that turned up often in 2018 and 2019, and then simply stopped appearing.

• Laugh It Up (500 V-Bucks) dates from 4 June 2018 and was last in the shop on 19 May 2022.
• Tidy (500 V-Bucks), the Snoop Dogg dance, dates from 30 April 2018 and was last seen on 6 December 2022.
• Rambunctious (500 V-Bucks) dates from 9 June 2018 and was last seen on 7 December 2022, one day after Tidy.
• Flex On ‘Em and Buckets (both 200 V-Bucks) came out on 24 and 23 May 2019 and vanished together on 26 March 2022.

Four years is a long absence, but it is nowhere near Fresh. These emotes come from the same early era as the items collectors chase in our guide to Fortnite OG skins, and they are the ones that have been quietest since.

Battle Pass Emotes That Were Never in the Shop

Floss, Take The L and The Robot get named in almost every rare emote list, but none of them was ever sold for V-Bucks. They were rewards, so the only way to own one was to play the season that carried it.

Because these never had a shop price, they cannot be ranked by last seen date. They are permanent exclusives in the practical sense, at least until Epic decides otherwise. For comparison, the current battle pass costs 800 V-Bucks and returns on 5 December 2026, as laid out in our guide to what the battle pass costs.

Event Emotes: Kiss the Cup and Raise the Cup

Two emotes belong in neither of the groups above. Kiss the Cup was released on 27 July 2019 at 200 V-Bucks as a World Cup item and was last seen the following day. Raise the Cup followed on 20 August 2020, also at 200 V-Bucks, as a Liverpool F.C. tie-in, and was last seen on 21 August.

By date alone they would rank second and fourth. They are left out of the main ranking because event items are built around a moment, and a rerun depends on that moment coming round again.

Emotes People Call Rare That Have Already Returned

Older rare lists are the main source of bad information, because Epic has re-released emotes that had been away for more than a year. Several names that used to appear near the top of those lists were in the shop again in 2025 and 2026.

The lesson is to check the date rather than trust the reputation. Widow’s Pirouette was once the poster child for rarity, and it was on sale again in May 2025. Anything on the ranking above can follow it at any time.

How to Check an Emote Before You Call It Rare

The Item Shop rotates daily, and the date an item last appeared is the only number that counts. Today’s shop on 8 November 2026 shows how current prices run. Test of Will, Multi-Punches Flex and Chimichanga! cost 300 V-Bucks, and Helicopter, Mr. Brightside and Starting Prance cost 500. Several 500 V-Bucks emotes carried a "Leaving today" label, which is the rotation in action.

1. Find the emote in the catalogue of the Fortnite database you trust and open its page.
2. Read the last seen date, not the release date.
3. Subtract that date from today to get the real gap.
4. Check whether it was ever sold at all. A pass-only emote has no shop history.

A long gap is not a promise either way. The oldest items on the list have been away for years, and the shortest gaps on it are about four years, so even the least rare entry is rarer than the emotes in today’s shop.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the rarest Fortnite emote?

Fresh. It cost 800 V-Bucks, was released on 16 December 2017 and was last in the Item Shop on 21 November 2018. That is about eight years ago.

Why did Fresh leave the Fortnite shop?

Epic has not said. Alfonso Ribeiro sued Epic on 17 December 2018, a few weeks after Fresh was last sold, and later withdrew the suit. The emote has not returned since.

Can a rare Fortnite emote come back?

Yes. Epic has re-released items that had been away for over a year, and Widow’s Pirouette returned in May 2025 while Rage Quit sold again in April 2026.

Is Floss a rare emote?

It is pass-only rather than vaulted. Floss was a Tier 49 reward in the Chapter 1 Season 2 battle pass and was never listed in the shop, so there is no price or last seen date for it.

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