Q3 Domain Report: Slight “.COM” Reg Decline, New GTLDs Enjoy 10% Increase

While .com domain registrations saw what some industry experts called a “small but rare tick down” total number of name registrations for new gTLDs added an additional 2.9 million domains by the end of Q3 2023, representing a significant year-over-year increase of 10.6 percent. File photo: T. Schneider, ShutterStock.com, licensed.

RESTON, VA – Verisign, the company that is the authoritative registry for the .com, .net, and .name generic top-level domains (TLDs) and the .cc country-code top-level domain, released their 3rd quarter 2023 Domain Name Industry Brief (DNIB) this week that reveals by the end of the latest quarter, total domain registrations across all TLDs worldwide have reached 359.3 million. 

That number represents a 2.4 percent increase year over year, amounting to an additional 8.5 million domains. 

While the overall total saw an increase by the end of the third quarter, there were some fluctuations amongst individual TLDs; for example, the world’s most popular TLD, .com, saw an unusually slight decrease, going from 161.3 million at the end of the second quarter to 160.8 million. in addition, the .net TLD held on to approximately the same number of registrations that it’s been at for several years now, hovering just above 13 million. 

Total country code top level domain (ccTLD) registrations saw an additional 5.4 million domains added over the past year by the end of the third quarter, representing a 4.1 percent increase. By the number of registrations, the top 10 ccTLDs were remained in the same order in Q3 that they were in at the end of Q2: .cn (China), .de (Germany), .uk (United Kingdom), .nl (Netherlands), .ru (Russia), .br (Brazil), .au (Australia), .fr (France), .eu (European Union) and .it (Italy). 

Meanwhile, the total number of domain name registrations for new gTLDs (new generic top-level domains) added an additional 2.9 million domains by the end of Q three 2023, representing a significant year-over-year increase of 10.6 percent. 

According to Verisign’s DNIB website, “The Domain Name Industry Brief Quarterly Report reviews the state of the domain name industry each quarter through a variety of statistical and analytical research, as well as relevant industry insights. Verisign provides this report to highlight important trends in domain name registrations, including key performance indicators and growth opportunities, to industry analysts, media and businesses.”