Sphere Names Its Grammable Emoji Orbi

By Scott Roeben, on February 28 2025
3 min read 3 comments
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Sphere has named its much-shared emoji “mascot,” Orbi.

We agree this isn’t really worthy of an entire blog post, but it’s a slow news day, just play along. Sphere seems really excited about it.

We are actually going to keep the snark to a minimum because we, and millions of Las Vegas visitors, find Sphere’s emoji adorbiable. Suck it, spellcheck, we just invented a word.

“Emoji” comes from the Japanese words “e” (picture), “mo” (write) and “ji” (character).

Sphere has had lots of visuals on its massive external screen, the “exosphere,” but Orbi has made the biggest splash.

If you don’t count the eyeball, our personal favorite.

This just wins everything.

Sphere shared Orbi’s formal introduction via Twitter (see below).

Don’t try to understand it. It’s like trying to follow the story at a Cirque show.

Why did Sphere feel compelled to give the emoji a name? It’s the merch, of course.

Sphere also wants to prevent others from profiting from its intellectual property. Sphere is no Betty Willis. She designed the Las Vegas sign and didn’t trademark or copyright protect it because it was her gift to the city.

Then again, the Las Vegas sign didn’t cost $2.3 billion to build.

It’s unclear if the Orbi trademark will prevent other round screens from using emojis.

Thankfully, satire is protected by the First Amendment. Behold, Orbi-Wan Kenobe. Somebody had to do it.

A lot of cross-promotional opportunities here, Sphere.

Speaking of trademarking intellectual property, there’s an argument to be made Sphere should’ve checked with us because the name Orbi appears to have been inspired by one of our Tweets from 2021 where we used “orb be.” Taking our “orb be” and turning it into “Orbi” is akin to someone naming their restaurant McDowell’s or a collection of rooftop attractions “Mini Disni.” Seriously. Note: It’s entirely possible Neonopolis was dropped on its head a lot as an infant.

We knew that “TM” would come in handy someday. Not that everything has to be about us.

Here’s more about Orbi from the official announcement: “Since its debut, Orbi has appeared daily on the Exosphere—the world’s largest LED screen. The beloved emoji has sweated through a Las Vegas heat wave, caught snowflakes on its tongue during sweater weather’ season, woken up with a daily cup of coffee and put its party hat on every Friday and Saturday night. Orbi has donned festive glasses to ring in the New Year, dressed up as a spooky vampire for Halloween, and had heart eyes for Valentine’s Day. Orbi was the largest spectator at the Formula 1 Las Vegas Grand Prix races in both 2023 and 2024, and encouraged voters to cast their ballots by showcasing an ‘I Voted’ sticker on Election Day.”

More spit-balling!

The 14 people who get this joke are very special to us.

Oh, we’ll keep going. We have nothing better to do.

This is funnier if you read it with the voice of Marsellus Wallace in your head.

If you’re looking to catch some pics or video of Orbi, he’s a little hard to pin down. Yes, it’s a he. You’ll survive.

There’s no set schedule for when various video segments appear on the Sphere screen. We waited for a half hour last night, and the display was 100% surface of the Moon.

As for the Orbi merch, well, it’s objectively pretty lame. That’s not snark, that’s an objective opinion about something objectively lame.

Orbi isn’t really much of a thing unless it’s animated and shown on a 580,000 square foot screen.

Sphere really, really needs to hire an us.

You can check out all the merch on the official Web site.

Finally, the little bastard has a name. Don’t laugh, it could win you a bar bet someday.

We, naturally, were referring to Sphere as “Orb” pretty much from day one.

We were a huge “Sleeper” fan before all the Woody Allen awkwardness. Here you go, youths.


Anyhoo, Sphere has a lot of new and interesting things coming up, including a Backstreet Boys residency and $80 million “The Wizard of Oz” movie, none of which are a surprise because we ruin everything.

Sphere has become an unmissable part of the Las Vegas skyline, and we’re sure Orbi will continue to provide untold amusement, except for the people living near the Sphere, in which case Orbi will continue to provide macular degeneration akin to staring at the Sun for extended periods of time.

Yeah, that was a smidge snarky.