Sprites on the Web

Josh Comeau · 23 Feb 2026

Josh Comeau did not write this page.

Every claim below was made in this piece, quoted word for word and numbered in the order the piece makes them, so you can read it there rather than take our word for it. The sentence above each quote is our reading of the claim, not their wording. Each quote was checked against a stored copy of the page at build time; where the two differ, the quote is the fact.

Our reading
Devices and browsers have improved enough that even the lowest-end devices ought to handle a few dozen animated particles without trouble.

Their wordsDevices have gotten much faster and browsers have gotten much more optimized in the years since; even the lowest-end devices ought to be able to handle 14 particles animating at the same time without breaking a sweat.
Our reading
The main use case for CSS sprite animation is for things that look like sprites.

Their wordsSo, when should we use sprites? I think the main use case is for things that, well, look like sprites!

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