Why do emoji not render above a certain size in Chrome?

Is this a Chrome bug

Yes, it is. See, for example, these:

• bug report: https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=719648
• bug report: https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=501071
• test page: https://tobireif.com/posts/maximum_font_size_for_emoji/

Based on a lot of testing, 54px is the current maximum font size for emoji. But I will not give up hope :)

Update October 2018:

The maximum font-size for emoji in Mobile Chrome 69 is 146px.

Screenshot: https://app.crossbrowsertesting.com/public/ib8393c20a124bac/livetests/14400380/snapshots/z66ee2a9e2217b4cad00

If you set it to 147px, the emoji are not rendered properly: https://app.crossbrowsertesting.com/public/ib8393c20a124bac/livetests/14400384/snapshots/za103323111cb78aeff2

Some additional info regarding other mobile browsers: https://tobireif.com/posts/maximum_font_size_for_emoji/

Update November 2020:

Desktop Chrome (tested on MacOS) has a bug: https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=1153296

Emoji get cut off at certain sizes (more info in the bug report). Emoji look great eg at font-size 120px.

There doesn't seem a limit to the font-size for emoji in Mobile Chrome 83. On an Android tablet, Mobile Chrome renders emoji up to eg font-size 700px. At that size the emoji are blurry, but at font-size 120px and lower they look OK, and at font-size 80px and lower they look great.

I just had the same problem, and I found out that the new max font size for emojis on Android devices is 49px, not 54px as Tobi Reif stated.

I guess this is changing with every new version.