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Domain name statistics (2026)

49 how many domain names exist, which extensions are growing, what .com costs at wholesale, how the 2026 new gTLD round went, the largest reported sales and dispute counts. Each statistic has its date and a link to the publisher (DNIB/Verisign, ICANN, IANA, national registries, WIPO, W3Techs). Last updated 10 November 2026.

Key takeaways

How many domain names are registered in 2026?

411.6 million domain names were registered across all top-level domains at the end of the third quarter of 2026, up 33.0 million (8.7%) in a year, according to the Domain Name Industry Brief. Of those, 169.8 million are .com and 12.6 million .net, 151.4 million are country-code domains such as .de and .uk, and 56.6 million are new generic extensions such as .xyz and .shop, which grew 32.0% in a year.

All domain names411.6 million at 30 September 2026 (DNIB)
.com169.8 million registrations; used by 43.6% of websites (W3Techs)
Country-code domains151.4 million, up 4.6% in a year
New gTLDs56.6 million, up 32.0% in a year
.com wholesale price$10.97 a year from 1 November 2026 (Verisign)

Registration counts are as of 30 September 2026 unless stated. Registry counters and W3Techs figures update daily and carry their own dates.

Facts checked 10 November 2026.

📊 49 statistics, 24 sources📅 Last updated ✍ By Harshit Rajput, founder, Neweb

The Domain Name Industry Brief (DNIB), published quarterly and sponsored by Verisign, is the standard count of registered domain names. It is supplemented here with registry reports, ICANN and IANA publications, company results and WIPO case data. "Via" in a source line means a named outlet reporting a primary document. Choosing a name rather than counting them? See how to pick a domain name. Figures were checked on 9 and 10 November 2026.

How many domain names are registered?

Domain Name Industry Brief, third quarter of 2026 (as of 30 September 2026).

  1. 411.6 million domain names were registered across all top-level domains at the end of Q3 2026, up 9.9 million (2.5%) on the previous quarter.Source: DNIB Q3 2026 (PDF)
  2. Registrations increased by 33.0 million, or 8.7%, year over year.Source: Verisign, 22 Oct 2026
  3. .com and .net had a combined 182.5 million registrations, up 10.5 million (6.1%) in a year.Source: DNIB Q3 2026 (PDF)
  4. .com totalled 169.8 million registrations and .net 12.6 million.Source: DNIB Q3 2026 (PDF)
  5. 13.1 million new .com and .net names were registered in Q3 2026, against 10.6 million in Q3 2025.Source: Verisign Q3 2026 results, 22 Oct 2026
  6. Country-code domains totalled 151.4 million, up 6.6 million (4.6%) year over year.Source: DNIB Q3 2026 (PDF)
  7. New gTLDs totalled 56.6 million, up 13.7 million (32.0%) year over year, and make up 13.7% of all registrations.Source: DNIB Q3 2026 (PDF)
  8. The other legacy gTLDs (excluding .com and .net) totalled 21.1 million, up 11.5% in a year.Source: DNIB Q3 2026 (PDF)

Which domain extensions are the largest?

Ranking by registered names. Usage by live websites is a different measure and is listed further down.

  1. The ten largest TLDs by registrations are .com, .cn, .de, .net, .org, .uk, .xyz, .ru, .top and .nl (30 September 2026).Source: DNIB Q3 2026 (PDF)
  2. The ten largest country-code TLDs are .cn, .de, .uk, .ru, .nl, .br, .fr, .au, .in and .eu; together they hold 56.7% of all ccTLD registrations.Source: DNIB Q3 2026 (PDF)
  3. The ten largest generic TLDs are .com, .net, .org, .xyz, .top, .info, .shop, .online, .store and .vip; they hold 87.7% of gTLD registrations and 55.5% of all registrations.Source: DNIB Q3 2026 (PDF)
  4. 1,122 generic and 309 country-code extensions were delegated in the root zone at 30 September 2026.Source: DNIB Q3 2026 (PDF)
  5. The IANA root zone list contained 1,436 top-level domains on 9 November 2026.Source: IANA root zone TLD list, 9 Nov 2026
  6. .de had 18,402,223 registered domains on 10 November 2026 (DENIC live counter).Source: DENIC live counter, 10 Nov 2026
  7. .au had 4,336,499 domains under management in March 2026, up 1.8% in a year, with 169,372 new names created in the quarter.Source: auDA Quarterly Report Q3 2025-26 (PDF)
  8. .ca had 3,426,339 domains at the close of CIRA's 2025 financial year (31 March 2025).Source: CIRA Annual Report FY25 (PDF)
  9. European country-code domains grew at a median of 2.5% year on year across the CENTR30 group of registries (April 2026 review).Source: CENTR, 17 Jun 2026

How many domains get renewed?

Renewal rates separate names people build on from names bought on a first-year discount and dropped.

  1. The preliminary .com and .net renewal rate was 74.3% for Q3 2026.Source: DNIB Q3 2026 (PDF)
  2. The final .com and .net renewal rate for Q2 2026 was 75.2%, against 75.5% a year earlier.Source: Verisign Q3 2026 results, 22 Oct 2026
  3. The combined renewal estimate for new gTLDs was 28.6%, against 79.8% for legacy gTLDs.Source: DNIB Q3 2026 (PDF)
  4. Among the ten largest TLDs, renewal estimates ranged from 86.3% for .org to 12.5% for .top.Source: DNIB Q3 2026 (PDF)
  5. Among the ten largest country-code TLDs, renewal estimates ranged from 82.2% for .fr to 70.2% for .ru.Source: DNIB Q3 2026 (PDF)

What does a .com domain cost at wholesale?

Registrars add their own margin on top of the registry fee; first-year promotions are often below it and renewals above. Neweb includes a free domain for the first year on paid plans.

  1. The registry-level wholesale fee for each new and renewed .com name rose from $10.26 to $10.97 on 1 November 2026.Source: Verisign Q1 2026 results, 23 Apr 2026
  2. Verisign may raise .com prices by up to 7% in each of the last four years of its six-year contract periods; the previous increase was in September 2024.Source: Domain Name Wire, 23 Apr 2026
  3. The .net wholesale fee rises from $10.91 to $12.00 on 1 March 2027.Source: Verisign Q3 2026 filings, via webhosting.today, 23 Oct 2026
  4. Verisign, which runs .com and .net, reported revenue of $443 million for Q3 2026, up 5.7%, and operating income of $296 million.Source: Verisign Q3 2026 results, 22 Oct 2026

What happened in the 2026 new gTLD round?

ICANN opened its first application round for new extensions since 2012.

  1. The evaluation fee in the 2026 round was set at $227,000 per application.Source: ICANN New gTLD Program
  2. The application window opened on 30 April 2026 and closed on 12 August 2026, accepting applications in 27 scripts.Source: ICANN, 30 Apr 2026
  3. The previous round, in 2012, resulted in more than 1,200 new gTLDs.Source: ICANN, 30 Apr 2026
  4. ICANN received more than 1,600 primary applications in the 2026 round (preliminary count, pending fee payment).Source: ICANN preliminary count, via CADE, 14 Aug 2026
  5. ICANN lists 3,323 accredited registrars, of which over 1,500 (almost 47%) belong to the drop-catching firm DropCatch (September 2026).Source: ICANN registrar list, via Domain Incite, Sep 2026

How big is .ai?

.ai is the country-code domain of Anguilla, and AI demand has turned it into a major source of government revenue.

  1. .ai passed one million registrations worldwide in January 2026.Source: Government of Anguilla, via Jamaica Gleaner, 9 Oct 2026
  2. .ai registrations earned Anguilla EC$217 million (US$80 million) in the first seven months of 2026, more than all taxes from the productive sector.Source: Government of Anguilla, via Jamaica Gleaner, 9 Oct 2026
  3. .ai is used by 0.3% of all websites, level with .io and .app (9 November 2026).Source: W3Techs, top level domains, 9 Nov 2026
  4. The largest reported .ai sales of 2026 so far are Orchestra.ai and OF.ai at $250,000 each.Source: DN Journal 2026 YTD sales chart

Who are the largest registrars?

Only company-reported figures are listed; Namecheap and Squarespace Domains publish none we could confirm.

  1. GoDaddy had 82.4 million domains under management at 30 September 2026, 1.6 million more than at the end of 2025.Source: GoDaddy Q3 2026 10-Q, via webhosting.today, 2 Nov 2026
  2. GoDaddy serves 20.5 million customers (30 September 2026).Source: GoDaddy Q3 2026 results, 29 Oct 2026 (SEC)
  3. Tucows Domains manages over 21 million domain names through a global reseller network of 32,000.Source: Tucows Q3 2026 results, Nov 2026

What are the most expensive domain names sold?

Publicly reported sales only; most high-value sales are private and never disclosed.

  1. Shop.com, at $99,000,000, tops DN Journal's 2026 chart and is the highest publicly reported domain sale on record.Source: DN Journal 2026 YTD sales chart
  2. AI.com was reported sold for $70,000,000 (reported February 2026).Source: DN Journal 2026 YTD sales chart
  3. Club.com sold for $10,000,000 and Green.com for $7,500,000 (reported April and May 2026).Source: DN Journal 2026 YTD sales chart
  4. Other seven-figure sales reported in 2026 include Clarity.com at $3,500,000 and TradingCards.com at $2,000,000.Source: DN Journal 2026 YTD sales chart

How many domain name disputes are filed?

WIPO administers cases under the Uniform Domain-Name Dispute-Resolution Policy (UDRP), the route a business uses when someone registers its trademark as a domain.

  1. 6,282 domain name cases were filed with WIPO in 2025, a record, against 6,168 in 2024 and 6,192 in 2023.Source: WIPO, cases per year (live table)
  2. 5,909 cases had been filed in 2026 by 10 November, taking WIPO's cumulative total to 85,984.Source: WIPO, cases per year (live table)
  3. Over the past 25 years WIPO has resolved over 80,000 domain name cases.Source: WIPO, 14 Jan 2026

Which extensions do live websites use?

W3Techs measures the share of websites, not registrations, so parked and unused names do not count.

  1. .com is used by 43.6% of all websites (9 November 2026).Source: W3Techs, top level domains, 9 Nov 2026
  2. The next most used extensions are .org (3.9%), .de (3.9%), .br (3.1%), .ru (2.8%), .uk (2.4%) and .net (2.2%).Source: W3Techs, top level domains, 9 Nov 2026
  3. Newer extensions remain small on live sites: .shop 0.4%, .io 0.3%, .online 0.3%, .app 0.3%.Source: W3Techs, top level domains, 9 Nov 2026
  4. HTTPS is the default protocol on 90.6% of websites (November 2026).Source: W3Techs, default protocol https, Nov 2026

What do these numbers mean for a small business?

  • .com is still the default. It holds 169.8 million registrations and 43.6% of live websites, more than ten times any other extension by usage.
  • New extensions grow fast and churn fast. New gTLDs grew 32% in a year, but only 28.6% are renewed, against roughly three in four .com and .net names.
  • .com is getting more expensive. The wholesale fee rose to $10.97 in November 2026 and can rise up to 7% a year in four of every six years, so a renewal price that looks stable today will not stay that way.
  • Country-code domains are a third of the market (151.4 million) and renew well, a sensible choice for a business that serves one country.
  • Protect the name early. WIPO disputes hit a record 6,282 in 2025; registering the obvious variants costs far less than recovering one.

Methodology

Each statistic was included only if the figure could be read on the linked page on 9 or 10 November 2026: the publisher's own page or document where possible, otherwise a named outlet quoting the publisher (marked "via"). Research was done by Neweb with AI-assisted retrieval; a person can verify every line by following its link. Survey results describe the sample and year stated, not all businesses everywhere. Figures from sources that update continuously (W3Techs daily, StatCounter monthly, registry counters live) carry an "as of" date and will drift. This page is reviewed when its major sources publish new editions; the last review was on 10 November 2026.

Left out on purpose, because no confirmable source was found:

  • Individual sizes of the top ten TLDs other than .com and .net: the DNIB publishes them as chart labels, which we could not read reliably, so only the ranking is listed.
  • Namecheap and Squarespace Domains totals, .io registration counts, and Nominet's own .uk count: no confirmable primary figure.
  • DNSSEC adoption: published figures use incompatible denominators and none could be confirmed on a primary dataset.
  • .ai full-year revenue projections: outlets report conflicting values; only the seven-month figure is listed.
  • Average length of a .com name and "most expensive domain ever" lists that include unverified private deals.

Found an error or a newer figure? Email hello@neweb.ai and it will be corrected with a dated note.

How to cite this page

Cite the original publisher for the number, and this page as the compilation. You may quote any statistic with a link back; no permission is needed.

Neweb (2026). "Domain name statistics (2026)." https://neweb.ai/pages/guides/domain-name-statistics. Last updated 10 November 2026. Accessed [date].
<a href="https://neweb.ai/pages/guides/domain-name-statistics">Domain name statistics (2026)</a>, Neweb, 10 November 2026

Sources

Every external source used on this page (24).

  1. DNIB.com (sponsored by Verisign), The Domain Name Industry Brief Quarterly Report, Q3 2026, October 2026 (PDF): https://www.dnib.com/media/downloads/reports/domain-name-report-Q32026.pdf
  2. Verisign blog, Q3 2026 Domain Name Industry Brief Quarterly Report, 22 October 2026: https://blog.verisign.com/domain-names/q3-2026-domain-name-industry-brief-quarterly-report/
  3. Verisign, Verisign Reports Third Quarter 2026 Results, 22 October 2026 (press release as republished by Finviz): https://finviz.com/news/406822/verisign-reports-third-quarter-2026-results
  4. IANA, tlds-alpha-by-domain.txt, version 2026110900 (line count), 9 November 2026: https://data.iana.org/TLD/tlds-alpha-by-domain.txt
  5. DENIC eG, .de domain counter on the DENIC homepage, viewed 10 November 2026: https://www.denic.de/en/
  6. auDA, Quarterly Report Q3 2025-26, May 2026 (PDF): https://files.auda.org.au/documents/auDA_2025-26_Q3_Report.pdf
  7. CIRA, Annual Report FY25, August 2025 (PDF): https://www.cira.ca/uploads/2025/08/cira-annual-report_en_250815.pdf
  8. CENTR, European ccTLD Market Review, April 2026 edition, 17 June 2026: https://centr.org/news/news/european-cctld-market-review-april-2026-edition-now-live.html
  9. Verisign, Verisign Reports First Quarter 2026 Results, 23 April 2026 (press release on Nasdaq): https://www.nasdaq.com/press-release/verisign-reports-first-quarter-2026-results-2026-04-23
  10. Domain Name Wire, Breaking: VeriSign raising wholesale .com prices, 23 April 2026: https://domainnamewire.com/2026/04/23/breaking-verisign-raising-wholesale-com-prices/
  11. webhosting.today, Verisign: record 13.1 million new .com and .net names (citing Verisign's Q3 2026 release and Form 10-Q), 23 October 2026: https://webhosting.today/2026/10/23/verisign-record-13-1-million-new-com-and-net-names-as-growth-speeds-up/
  12. ICANN New gTLD Program, gTLD Evaluation Fee Frequently Asked Questions: https://newgtldprogram.icann.org/en/node/235
  13. ICANN, ICANN Opens Application Window for New Generic Top-Level Domains, 30 April 2026: https://www.icann.org/en/announcements/details/icann-opens-application-window-for-new-generic-top-level-domains-30-04-2026-en
  14. CADE, ICANN receives more than 1,600 applications in 2026 new gTLD round (citing ICANN), 14 August 2026: https://cadeproject.org/updates/icann-receives-more-than-1600-applications-in-2026-new-gtld-round/
  15. Domain Incite, DropCatch acquires 300 more registrars (citing ICANN's accredited registrar list), September 2026: https://domainincite.com/?p=31912
  16. Jamaica Gleaner, Anguilla's AI domain registration earns US$80m year-to-date (citing Anguilla's Premier), 9 October 2026: https://jamaica-gleaner.com/index.php/article/business/20261009/anguillas-ai-domain-registration-earns-us80m-year-date-more-all-taxes
  17. W3Techs, Usage statistics and market shares of top level domains for websites, 9 November 2026: https://w3techs.com/technologies/overview/top_level_domain
  18. DN Journal, 2026 Year-to-Date Top 100 Domain Sales Chart (sales reported through 1 November 2026): https://www.dnjournal.com/ytd-sales-charts.htm
  19. webhosting.today, GoDaddy Q3 2026 (citing GoDaddy's Q3 2026 release and Form 10-Q), 2 November 2026: https://webhosting.today/2026/11/02/godaddy-q3-2026-domains-lifted-its-core-segment-the-rest-including-hosting-fell-7-4m/
  20. GoDaddy Inc., GoDaddy Reports Third Quarter 2026 Financial Results (Form 8-K, Exhibit 99.1), 29 October 2026: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/0001609711/000160971126000117/gddyex991-20260930xq3earni.htm
  21. Tucows Inc., third quarter 2026 results press release, November 2026 (as republished by Finviz): https://finviz.com/news/417957/tucows-reports-third-quarter-results-in-line-with-expectations-with-progress-on-balance-sheet-obligations
  22. WIPO Arbitration and Mediation Center, Total Number of Domain Name Cases per Year, viewed 10 November 2026: https://www.wipo.int/amc/en/domains/statistics/cases.jsp
  23. WIPO, 2025 Marks Record-Breaking Year for WIPO Domain Name Disputes, 14 January 2026: https://www.wipo.int/amc/en/domains/news/2026/news_0001.html
  24. W3Techs, Usage statistics of Default protocol https for websites, November 2026: https://w3techs.com/technologies/details/ce-httpsdefault
FAQ

Frequently asked questions

How many domain names are there in the world?

There were 411.6 million registered domain names across all top-level domains at 30 September 2026, according to the Domain Name Industry Brief published by DNIB.com and sponsored by Verisign. That is 33.0 million (8.7%) more than a year earlier. The total is made up of 182.5 million .com and .net names, 151.4 million country-code names, 56.6 million new gTLD names and 21.1 million other legacy gTLD names.

How many .com domains are registered?

.com had 169.8 million registered names at 30 September 2026, about 41% of all domain names, and 13.1 million new .com and .net names were registered in the third quarter of 2026 alone. Measured by live websites rather than registrations, W3Techs found .com in use on 43.6% of all websites on 9 November 2026.

How much does a .com domain cost in 2026?

The wholesale fee that Verisign charges registrars for each new and renewed .com name rose from $10.26 to $10.97 a year on 1 November 2026. Retail prices sit on top of that: registrars often discount the first year below wholesale and charge more at renewal. Under its agreements Verisign may raise the .com price by up to 7% in each of the last four years of every six-year contract period.

Which domain extension is the most popular after .com?

By registrations, China's .cn is second and Germany's .de third, followed by .net, .org and .uk (DNIB, 30 September 2026). By use on live websites, .org and .de are level at 3.9% of all websites, then .br at 3.1% and .ru at 2.8% (W3Techs, 9 November 2026).

Are new domain extensions like .xyz and .shop worth using?

They are growing quickly, 56.6 million registrations and up 32.0% in a year, but they are renewed far less often: the DNIB estimates a 28.6% renewal rate for new gTLDs against 79.8% for legacy gTLDs. On live websites they are still rare, with .shop on 0.4% and .online on 0.3% of sites. For a business, a .com or the local country-code domain remains the safer default.

What is the most expensive domain name ever sold?

The highest publicly reported sale is Shop.com at $99 million, which tops DN Journal's 2026 sales chart; AI.com follows at a reported $70 million. Most very large domain deals are private, so public charts understate the market.

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