Global Domain Report 2026

Our survey results suggest that the “center of gravity” in domain registrations has shifted back towards growth. In 2025, almost 39% of respondents reported an increase in registration activity (with more than one in five seeing a significant increase), compared to around 29% who experienced a decrease and roughly a third whose volumes stayed about the same.

Envisioning 2026, optimism strengthens: about 45% expect their registration activity to increase, while only around 24% anticipate a decline. The share expecting stable activity remains roughly one third, indicating a solid core of steady demand. Overall, the data points to a market that feels more expansionary than contractionary, with many players planning to stay active — or become even more active — in the domain universe.

The top 10 TLDs account for roughly two thirds of all registrations, underlining how concentrated the market remains at the very top. The extension .com dominates the chart, with a volume that is many times higher than that of most other TLDs in the top 10.

Year on year, most leading extensions show moderate growth or slight declines, reflecting a largely stable but mature segment. The most visible change happens at the edge of the ranking: .xyz and .top enter the top 10 for the first time, while .br and .au drop out, signaling strong momentum for some high-volume new gTLDs. Overall, a small group of legacy gTLDs and major ccTLDs continues to anchor the market, with newer extensions now increasingly embedded among the largest players.

The current TLD landscape is built on three strong pillars: around 194 million gTLDs, 146 million ccTLDs and nearly 48 million new gTLDs, making all three categories meaningful parts of the overall market. Legacy gTLDs still form the core of the namespace, but ccTLDs account for well over a third of all domains, underlining the continued importance of local, country-based identities. New gTLDs, with close to 50 million names, now represent a substantial secondary layer rather than a niche segment.

Within this picture, .com alone reaches about 161 million registrations, while the remaining 200+ million domains are distributed across a wide range of country codes, legacy gTLDs and newer extensions. Together, the figures point to a market where a few very large TLDs coexist with a long tail of specialized options.

The fastest-growing TLDs YoY are a very mixed, niche group. Such high percentage jumps often reflect growth from relatively small starting volumes, but they still signal where new naming experiments and marketing efforts are concentrated. Many of these extensions map well to the demand drivers our survey highlights: new businesses, SEO and marketing needs, AI-generated brand names and speculation/investment all favor memorable, semantically rich strings that signal purpose or community. In that sense, their growth fits a broader pattern where targeted, meaning-heavy namespaces benefit most from today’s brand, content and campaign-driven registration activity.

While high percentage growth highlights “niche experiments” like .forum (+1,005%), absolute numbers reveal the true market drivers. For instance, .com added 5 M registrations, proving that legacy players still generate the bulk of industry volume despite lower growth rates.

Rapid percentage jumps often stem from small starting bases. In contrast, absolute growth identifies “workhorse” extensions like .xyz and .top — adding 4.2 M and 2.7 M respectively — as they transition from niche satellites to established global players.

High absolute growth in legacy TLDs like .com, .info and .org signals professional usage and long-term trust. Conversely, spikes in vertical strings like .beer or .food (+571% and +385%) often reflect specific marketing campaigns rather than broad market adoption.

The .ai extension continues to prove its durability by adding 0.4 M new registrations, confirming that its momentum is driven by commercial adoption rather than a temporary trend.

High percentage growth identifies future marketing “hot zones”, while absolute growth pinpoints where immediate revenue and infrastructure demands — like security and support — are most concentrated.

Domain parking describes domains that are registered but not yet “brought to life” with real websites. Instead, they sit on placeholder pages – often with ads or “for sale” signs – like ships waiting in orbit. For domain professionals, parking rates are important signals: they hint at investor activity, portfolio strategies and potential aftermarket liquidity within specific TLDs.

In the data, .ws and .to stand out with particularly high parking rates, suggesting these namespaces are frequently held rather than developed. Several new gTLDs also show elevated parking levels, reinforcing the idea that parts of the newer TLD galaxy are driven more by registrations and investment than by active usage.

We look at the share of developed websites by TLD to see where real online activity actually lands, beyond mere registrations. Not surprisingly, .com remains the dominant star, accounting for almost half of all developed websites on the web. Around it, the rest of the top 10 is formed by a familiar mix of legacy gTLDs and ccTLDs – strong local constellations orbiting alongside well-established global extensions. According to our data, .shop is the brightest new gTLD in this regard, with the highest number of developed websites in its segment. We’ll zoom in on new gTLDs in more detail in the next chapter.

In total, .com accounts for 48.5% of developed websites, the other nine TLDs of the top 10 for 21.2% and all other TLDs for 30.3%.

The 2025 buzz terms in domains cluster around two big themes: broad business language and cutting-edge tech. On the general side, frequently used strings act as flexible building blocks for brandable names, especially for agencies, platforms and B2B services.

In the tech-focused cloud, the terms reflect strong interest in AI, data infrastructure and Web3/crypto, often combined to signal innovation and future-readiness. Together, these patterns suggest that many new names try to sit at the intersection of broad commercial appeal and hot technology narratives, leaving room to pivot as trends evolve.

Over the past decade, European ccTLDs have shifted from high-velocity expansion to a mature, steady orbit. Median 12-month growth for the 30 largest European ccTLDs in CENTR membership ran at around 3–4% in 2015–2018, spiked during the COVID years, and then moved through elevated deletions before returning toward “business as usual”. In 2025, the median 12-month growth rate for the CENTR30 was 1.9%, while only a few ccTLDs remain in contraction and show early signs of recovery.

At the same time, retention has improved, rising from around 82% in 2015 to a stable ~86% in 2023–2025, indicating that once registered, European ccTLDs tend to be renewed. This combination of slower net growth and strong renewal rates is typical of a maturing market: fewer speculative surges, more established usage.

European ccTLDs remain an affordable choice with retail prices sitting generally below .com in most markets. While initial registration costs are competitive, renewal prices have been trending upward, which may influence registrant behavior and retention.

Most ccTLDs derive around 90% of registrations from their local market and are well embedded in local business communities. With respect to penetration data, the median hovers around 9 ccTLD domains per 100 inhabitants, which is roughly double from 2010 rates. In some larger markets, penetration is lower, particularly where .com established an early foothold and continues to capture a significant share of registrations.

Future growth will be driven more by active use & quality of service than by speculative holdings, as domain visibility is reshaped by apps, browsers and AI-driven user behavior.

There is no single “official” source for new gTLD registration figures and different datasets diverge, so this year we chose to show exact numbers only for the six largest new gTLDs and to complement them with a broader Top 30 view without precise volumes. Both perspectives tell a similar story: a small group of high-volume, strongly “online keyword”-oriented strings dominates the new gTLD galaxy. Behind them, the wider top 30 is populated by versatile namespaces and focused vertical TLDs clustered around business, finance, tech, content and communities.

Overall, the pattern suggests that while hundreds of new gTLDs exist, real registration activity is concentrated in a relatively compact constellation of meaning-rich, broadly marketable extensions.

GeoTLDs are like digital coordinates on the world’s namespace map, representing specific regions and geographic communities. In our data, all major geoTLDs show YoY growth, confirming steady demand for location-based online identities. The overall ranking has remained largely stable over the years, suggesting a well-established galaxy of regional extensions.

The chart is dominated by European geoTLDs (seven in total, including two German ones), but South America, Asia and Africa are also clearly visible in this constellation. At the top, .asia continues to shine brightest, holding its leading position in the geoTLD charts for several years. It is worth noting that .asia benefited from a significant head start: established in 2007, it has been in orbit far longer than the newer geographic extensions.

Within the geoTLD galaxy, cityTLDs form their own bright cluster: extensions that carry the names of cities and mirror their urban identity in the domain universe.

When we ask, “Which city lights shine brightest from the namespace?”, this year’s ranking shows quite a bit of movement, with noticeable ups and downs — and the Belgian city .gent entering the chart for the very first time. Seven out of ten top cityTLDs are European, and interestingly, three of them are German cities, underlining Europe’s strong presence in this segment. Yet only six of the leading cityTLDs are capital cities, proving that digital visibility doesn’t always follow political maps.

In the new gTLD nebula, one pattern stands out: many of these extensions still show a relatively high share of inactive domains, like stars registered but not yet lit.

Among the most registered new gTLDs, several also rank high in active use, but there are notable exceptions such as .dev and .space. Not in every constellation does high registration volume translate into many developed websites: .xyz, for instance, has more registrations but comparatively few active sites, while .space shows the opposite trend. This underlines how different new gTLDs follow very different usage orbits within the same galaxy.

Redirects act like navigation trails, showing where users are really being guided and which namespaces are used as entry points.

Looking at redirects helps us understand how new gTLDs are positioned: as primary destinations, experimental satellites, or supporting domains in a broader naming strategy. In this constellation, .com remains the dominant launchpad, accounting for more than 50% of all redirects pointing toward new gTLDs.

At the same time, our data shows a healthy mix of legacy gTLDs, ccTLDs and even other new gTLDs acting as sources of redirects, underlining how interconnected the modern namespace has become.

Good DNS hygiene acts like a protective shield: HTTPS encrypts traffic, SPF and DMARC help prevent email spoofing, DNSSEC safeguards DNS answers from tampering, while IPv6 support and CDNs improve resilience, reach and performance. Together, these protocols make domains harder to attack and more trustworthy to use.

In our data, however, new gTLDs generally show lower adoption rates for several of these safeguards. Possible reasons include younger, more volatile portfolios, a higher share of parked or speculative registrations, and many smaller registries or hosting setups that have not yet fully aligned with best-practice security baselines.

Brand TLDs (dotBrands) are like private constellations in the namespace: instead of using generic endings such as .com, companies operate their own closed extension for corporate content, campaigns or infrastructure.

In the 2012 new gTLD round, they accounted for about 34% of the 1,930 applications, with 664 brand TLDs submitted. According to our data, most domains under brand TLDs remain inactive so far, with only around 14% showing developed websites and additional cases where domains are used for email only.

Interestingly, more than half of all top brand TLDs belong to German companies, underlining Germany’s role in the namespace with .de among the most registered and actively used TLDs, a wide adoption of geoTLDs, and a leading footprint in brand TLDs.

The New gTLD Program 2026 will be the next major expansion of the DNS, opening the door for a new wave of extensions – from sector- and geo-specific strings to brand TLDs and more experimental namespaces. For registries and registrars, this means fresh opportunities but also tougher questions around positioning, policy, security and long-term sustainability: not every string will find a clear market fit. For brands and communities, the round offers a chance to secure more meaningful, controlled namespaces, but with higher expectations around marketing, compliance and abuse mitigation. On the industry level, the influx of new options is likely to sharpen competition, accelerate consolidation and make data-driven portfolio and pricing decisions even more important.

Overall, the next few years will be less about raw expansion and more about how well new and existing TLDs can demonstrate trust, relevance and real-world use.

Brand and revenue opportunities, but high costs hold back. Our survey shows that while revenue opportunities are clearly seen as the main driver for joining the new gTLD Program 2026, the motivation landscape is much richer than pure monetization. Brand-related goals (protection, defensive strategies and portfolio synergies) score almost as highly, indicating that many players view new gTLDs as strategic assets to strengthen and structure their existing namespace “constellations”. Geographic identity, and community- or mission-driven ideas also rank highly, showing applicants weigh both commercial and positioning value when considering new extensions.

On the obstacle side, the biggest gravity wells are costs and marketing: application and ongoing fees and the budget needed to build awareness are seen as the main brakes on participation. By contrast, internal resources and technical complexity are viewed as less critical, suggesting many potential applicants feel technically capable but remain cautious about the long-term financial and branding commitments that come with running a new gTLD.

In 2025, demand for new gTLDs remained strong on the Sedo marketplace, with sales recorded across a broad range of extensions. Activity was spread over many different TLDs, underlining the continued acceptance of new gTLDs as viable alternatives to traditional extensions, particularly for brandable and project-driven use cases.

At the volume level, extensions such as .xyz, .online and .app continued to rank among the most popular new gTLDs, reflecting their broad applicability and global recognition. At the higher end of the market, premium sales were observed across several extensions, demonstrating that buyers remain willing to invest in well-positioned new gTLD domains when the naming and use case are compelling.

Overall, new gTLDs are no longer perceived solely as experimental options. Instead, they have become an established part of the aftermarket, attracting both end users and investors seeking flexible, modern domain alternatives beyond the traditional TLD landscape.

New gTLDs enter a phase of stabilized, targeted demand. New gTLD transfers show the secondary market for these extensions maturing through distinct phases — early adoption, rapid growth, correction, and stabilization — based on Sedo’s aftermarket data. Today, new gTLDs are a recognized but more selective part of the domain aftermarket, complementing the continued dominance of .com and strong ccTLDs.

High costs and low awareness limit new gTLD resales. Our survey paints a cautious picture of new gTLDs in the aftermarket. Most respondents see their resale potential as weaker than that of classic TLDs, with only a minority expecting them to outperform .com & co., and many viewing them as roughly on par. That perception is mirrored in portfolio structures: for most participants, new gTLDs are either a small side-orbit or completely absent, rather than a core asset class.

When asked about what holds wider adoption back, respondents point first to low buyer awareness and higher renewal/acquisition costs, closely followed by concerns about limited resale data and liquidity — a combination that makes it hard to build confidence in long-term value. Registry policies and restrictions are seen as an additional friction point, but clearly secondary to the fundamental question: “Will buyers really pay for these names at scale?”

From December 2023 through November 2025, NetBeacon MAP measured far more unique domains associated with phishing (98%) than malware distribution (2%). DNS abuse generally appears as either maliciously registered domains or compromised domains hacked via unpatched vulnerabilities outside registry control. Using KOR Labs’ MalCom machine-learning classifier, researchers identified that roughly 85% of abusive domains (350,367) over the last 12 months were maliciously registered.

This share is lower in legacy gTLDs (69%) and ccTLDs (76%), likely because their older domain usage base accumulates unpatched software, increasing the pool of easily compromised sites.

One way to gauge how much abuse is really out there in the DNS universe is to look at malicious abuse per 100,000 domains under management (DUM). Across the period observed, NetBeacon MAP identified 404,757 domains as malicious phishing or malware, with a final DUM of 364,868,178 in November 2025. On this basis, the monthly malicious abuse rate fluctuated between 6.23 and 11.76 per 100,000 domains, with a 12-month average of around 8.2: a relatively small fraction of the total namespace, but still a significant “noise level” operators must manage.

NetBeacon MAP also tracks the “safest stars” in the TLD sky by publishing monthly tables of extensions with the lowest malicious abuse rates. The tables below highlight those TLDs that have appeared most consistently in the low-abuse tables over the last 12 months, with a “perfect score” meaning 12 out of 12 months. A small group of TLDs, including .biz, .com, .net, .org, .de, .ai and .ua, show that strong security practices and vigilant stewardship can keep abuse at a minimum even in very large namespaces.

Over the 24-month period from December 2023 to November 2025, DNS abuse mitigation rates remained consistently high, even as overall abuse volumes fluctuated across the domain universe. Mitigation is measured holistically — focusing on whether the harm has stopped — without assigning credit to specific actors, since action can be taken at registry, registrar or hosting level, and referrals between them are common. Notably, new gTLD contractual obligations raising mitigation expectations came into force in April 2024.

For malicious registrations, which fall more within the remit of registries and registrars, mitigation improved significantly: in the most recent 12 months the average rate was about 91% (range ~87–93%), compared with roughly 80% (range ~68–88%) in the preceding 12 months. For compromised domains, where an innocent registrant is typically involved and DNS-level takedown is not always appropriate, mitigation is more complex and rates are lower but stable at around 52% on average across both periods (range ~46–57%), highlighting that clearly malicious abuse is much easier to remediate than compromise cases.

From December 2024 to November 2025, most DNS abuse (phishing and malware) was mitigated quickly: 73% of cases were addressed within 72 hours, and a solid 51.8% within 24 hours. There is no industry-wide standard for mitigation speed, and operators — especially when acting at the DNS level — must balance the risk of false positives against the need to stop harm early, when attacks are often most damaging. While cybercrime is often assumed to follow seasonal patterns, any seasonality looks weak and hard to separate from normal fluctuation, with anomalies like the March 2025 spike appearing linked to specific campaigns rather than broader seasonal effects.

It remains challenging to tell whether the true volume of abuse is changing, or whether we are simply getting better at detecting and reporting it.

Web3 domains have evolved into a distinct parallel namespace, with their own leading “anchor” extensions and ecosystem-specific trends. At the top of the chart, .eth, .nft, .crypto and .wallet dominate by volume, reflecting strong demand around identity, NFTs, payments and wallets, while other strings show how closely naming follows major blockchain and DeFi projects.

Taken together, the leading Web3 TLDs show that adoption remains diverse, spanning both long-established extensions and newer entrants that are rapidly gaining traction. Overall, the data highlights a vibrant and expanding ecosystem, with room for both mature and up-and-coming Web3 TLDs to attract users.

Data from 2025 indicates that name collisions are now a visible feature of the Web3 naming landscape. There are over 4,300 colliding TLD strings and more than 200 colliding SLDs, with TLD collisions increasing by 602 since 2024.

As a result, a single domain, label, or suffix may be valid in multiple environments at the same time. This overlap can create ambiguity about which entity truly controls the name and how it should be resolved by applications or users. These scenarios highlight the challenges of interoperability in a decentralized ecosystem and the importance of alignment, standards, or resolution mechanisms to ensure clarity & trust across Web3.

Our survey shows that a sizable minority is experimenting with or actively moving into Web3 domains, while the rest are still watching this new orbit from a cautious distance. Among those interested, the main drivers are very pragmatic with deeper use cases like decentralized identity or NFTs playing more of a supporting role.

When we zoom out to broader industry trends, Web3 sits alongside other major forces rather than eclipsing them: respondents rank consolidation, the next new gTLD wave, AI name generation, and stronger regulation/data privacy as equally important currents shaping their strategy. Web3 adoption and domain tokenization are clearly on the radar, but for most Web2 players they are still emerging themes rather than the central star of their roadmap. Overall, the data suggests a domain universe where Web3 is transitioning from buzzword to concrete opportunity — just not yet the dominant gravity well for most traditional operators.

Our survey shows AI is a force in daily operations: around two-thirds of respondents report an impact on demand, sourcing, or sales in 2025. This sentiment is validated by the growth of .ai, which reached the 1,000,000 registration milestone in January 2026 with a YoY growth rate of 67%. A pivotal moment was the +73% spike in registrations in mid-2023, corresponding to ChatGPT going public and the subsequent global AI boom. Looking ahead, the greatest potential lies in AI name generation (44%) and automated valuation (41%), designed to streamline the “discovery and decision” journey.

Interestingly, AI for abuse detection is mentioned less often, hinting at untapped defensive potential. It is clear that AI demand has moved from a niche trend to a structural market pillar defined by deep commercial integration.

Common Crawl is a non-profit initiative that regularly crawls the public web and publishes large-scale datasets containing billions of web pages. The archive is widely used in academic research and has also become one of the key raw data sources for training large language models (LLMs), as it provides a broad snapshot of how the web looks at a given point in time. In this sense, it represents part of the “digital diet” of AI systems, although the data is typically filtered, cleaned, and combined with other sources before model training.

Looking at the top 20 TLDs in Common Crawl therefore offers insight into which parts of the web are most heavily represented in large-scale web data. The dominance of .com, alongside strong positions of major country-code TLDs and established generics like .org or .net, reflects the structural concentration of the global web. At the same time, newer or niche TLDs tend to appear far less frequently, which may indicate lower visibility in large web corpora and, indirectly, in AI training data. The long-term trend shows .com’s share slowing/declining sharply: from ~71–75% (2008–2014) down to 43.3% (2026). Interpreted cautiously, this points to a web that is becoming less .com-centric in Common Crawl snapshots — either because ccTLD ecosystems have grown, or because crawl composition and coverage have changed (or both).

While this overview does not directly translate into influence or quality, it provides a useful macro-level indicator of web presence in the AI era.

.com accounts for 43.3% of the crawl data and all other TLDs together for 56.6%.

.ai domains remained prominent on the Sedo marketplace, confirming AI as a key 2025 theme. What began as a niche trend has evolved into a relevant segment, attracting startups, established companies and investors. Integrating AI into business processes, consumer products and digital services has sustained demand for short, brandable and application-focused names. While the market has matured compared to the rapid surge seen in previous years, buyer interest remains high, supported by sales activity across a wide range of price segments.

In 2025, .ai domains achieved strong results, particularly for short and versatile names suitable for global use. This performance underlines that .ai domains are no longer driven by hype, but by practical adoption and long-term commercial relevance. As AI technologies continue to expand into new industries, .ai remains positioned as a key asset within the domain aftermarket.

The UDRP (Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy) is the key mechanism that allows trademark holders to challenge domain registrations made in bad faith, without going through traditional courts. The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) is the leading provider of UDRP services and plays a central role in resolving these disputes globally.

In 2025, WIPO reached a new milestone, managing over 6,200 domain name cases, its highest caseload on record. Over the past 25 years, it has resolved more than 80,000 cases, including over 70,000 gTLD and nearly 10,000 ccTLD disputes. Trademark holders worldwide continue to rely on WIPO and the UDRP to combat digital infringement, with most cases originating from the United States, France and the United Kingdom.

UDRP is now critical across many TLDs beyond .com. WIPO’s role now extends across a broad slice of the namespace: with new additions each year, it currently provides dispute resolution services to 87 ccTLDs, alongside its gTLD work. In 2025, the most active ccTLDs in terms of UDRP case filings included both established markets and newer digital business hubs.

On the gTLD side, .com remains by far the main arena with 5,713 cases, followed at a distance by .shop and .net, with several new gTLDs also appearing in the statistics — an indication that brand disputes have firmly reached the newer parts of the domain galaxy too.

Read more in our interview with Charlotte Spencer, Senior Legal Officer at WIPO: UDRP and domain disputes.

Based on the distribution of active TMCH holder and agent accounts, the TMCH galaxy remains heavily concentrated in the global North. North America and Europe together account for almost nine out of ten active accounts, with Asia and Oceania forming smaller but visible constellations and South America and Africa only faintly represented. TMCH-based protection remains concentrated in mature, brand-driven markets. Lower representation in regions like Africa and South America is often due to procedural hurdles; because the TMCH requires final registration certificates rather than just applications, longer local processing timelines limit participation.

Looking at industry segments, innovation-heavy, IP-sensitive sectors are the ones most actively securing their marks in the TMCH, while areas like transport, travel and healthcare appear more softly lit in this star map. Together, the geography and industry data show a TMCH universe that is global in scope but still uneven in adoption, with clear gravitational centres in certain regions and sectors, and procedural factors that may influence how different parts of the world appear in this picture.

The Trustee Service helps registrants meet local presence or proof-of-residence requirements by providing a compliant trustee contact in the target country, enabling domains in markets that would otherwise be out of reach. This is particularly relevant for InterNetX as a Germany-based company and first registrar for .de, where .de accounts for the largest share of all Trustee Service usage (44.4%), once again underlining the strength and importance of this TLD in our cosmos.

Year-on-year, we observe more ccTLDs appearing in the Trustee charts, reflecting growing interest in locally anchored namespaces. The extension .jp continues to show solid demand with a visible spike compared to the previous year, while .berlin and .ma enter the ranking for the first time, signaling fresh expansion into city-specific and selected country markets via Trustee solutions.

Our Domain Price Check acts like a telescope for the value side of the namespace, and the picture it shows is far from linear. The brightest “price stars” are often niche or exotic TLDs, which command very high average estimations despite comparatively modest query volumes. In this comparison .jetzt stands out with both premium-level estimations and relatively high query-volumes. When filtering this data for TLDs with more than 10,000 queries, a few TLDs, such as .tech, .shop, .ai and several European ccTLDs stand out, combining both strong demand and elevated price estimates, marking them as particularly interesting “hot zones” in the domain galaxy.

By contrast, the workhorse constellations .com, .de and .net dominate when looking at the amount of queries, but sit at more moderate average price levels, showing that popularity and perceived resale value don’t always travel in the same orbit.

The Domain Price Check not only helps compare prices, it also gives us exclusive insight into what users are actually searching for across the namespace. By filtering out test terms and brands, the resulting TLD rankings mirror our real research trends: a strong showing for .com and .de, supported by solid demand for European ccTLDs & a number of new gTLDs that have established themselves as “strong” choices in European markets. On the keyword side, searches are dominated by general e-commerce and business-related terms, with a visible share of German-language keywords. The number “24” has established itself in the German web, originally inspired by the idea of 24/7 availability and now widely adopted by local brands in their naming.

At InterNetX, our trademark services protect brands in the namespace. Historically, protections were concentrated on legacy gTLDs (especially .com) and major ccTLDs, with new gTLDs forming a small satellite belt in the overall mix.

In 2025, that picture shifts: new gTLDs account for almost a third of new trademark protections, compared with only a small single-digit share in the long-term view, while legacy gTLDs and ccTLDs lose a bit of relative weight. This matches what we see at TLD level, where extensions like .xyz, .shop, .store or .online appear more often among new protections than their historical footprint would suggest, as brands fortify positions in younger, niche namespaces. At the same time, long-established spaces such as .de or .co.uk show up less frequently in the latest flow of new protections, likely because portfolios there are already well defended and brand owners are now extending their perimeter into new orbits of the namespace.

The premium segment of our namespace is clearly dominated by new gTLDs, with .click, .sexy and .art taking the top three positions; overall, the chart looks very similar to last year, with only minor shifts in ranking and .sbs entering the top 10 for the first time. Across these extensions, premium domains cluster strongly around four-character names, likely driven by their memorability, brevity and strong usability in branding and marketing.

At the same time, our survey shows most buyers are moderately to highly price-sensitive, while only a small share is truly relaxed about price. In practice, this means premium labels need clear added value — through strong positioning, niche relevance or standout naming potential — to justify higher pricing in a cost-aware market.

Our data shows that customers are activating extra “shields” around their domains. DomainSafe, our digital vault that locks domains behind PIN/mTAN protection, is used most frequently on .de, followed by .com and a cluster of European ccTLDs – a clear sign that high-value, business-critical names are the first to be “locked in”. DNSSEC adoption is led by European ccTLDs, with .nl and .ch showing particularly high rates, not least because registrants benefit from price discounts when DNSSEC is activated.

Among new gTLDs, tech-focused and geoTLDs show notable DNSSEC uptake, suggesting that many newer namespaces are “born” with a stronger security posture. Taken together, these patterns point toward a layered security strategy, where both classic TLDs and carefully chosen new gTLDs are increasingly protected by a mix of DNSSEC and registrar-side vaulting.

Within the IONOS Group universe, the TLD mix clearly reflects both global reach and deep European roots. .com anchors the portfolio as the main global constellation, while strong volumes in European ccTLDs underline IONOS’ role as a leading provider of local digital identities across Europe. Alongside these classic country codes and legacy gTLDs, a solid cluster of new gTLDs shows that customers are also embracing more specialized namespaces for e-commerce and tech-driven projects.

Particularly dynamic are .me, .io and .ai, which record the strongest YoY growth and mirror the momentum of personal branding, developer ecosystems and AI innovation in the wider web. Taken together, the data positions the IONOS Group as a registrar group that spans key global TLDs while shining especially bright in the European ccTLD and modern new gTLD galaxies.

Massive +135% YoY surge driven by a few scalable namespaces. In the new gTLD galaxy, domain inflow at the IONOS Group accelerated in 2025, growing +135% YoY — more than 2.3× the 2024 volume. The picture is highly concentrated: the top 5 new gTLDs by absolute increase account for about 87% of the uplift, and the top 10 for roughly 96%, meaning very few extensions are powering most of the expansion. Percentage growth needs careful reading, as many new gTLDs started from very small 2024 bases, so we looked only at strings with an inflow of at least 100 domains.

Under that lens, the fastest-growing strings are large, scalable namespaces such as .cloud, .xyz, .app and .store, showing real acceleration on meaningful volumes. The pattern suggests a clear shift in channel and offer positioning toward a few mass-market, globally versatile new gTLDs, rather than a broad-based lift across the entire new gTLD segment.

.com domains dominated the top end of the Sedo marketplace, accounting for the majority of the highest public sales. Premium short and highly brandable .com domains achieved the strongest results, reinforcing the continued preference for globally recognized extensions in high-value transactions. Compared to the previous year, .com further strengthened its position at the top of the market.

At the same time, strong individual sales were recorded outside the .com space. ccTLDs such as .de and .co.uk delivered notable results, reflecting ongoing demand for local and regional branding. In addition, .ai secured a high-ranking sale, underlining its continued relevance in the premium segment.

Overall, Sedo marketplace data confirms that .com remains the benchmark extension for top-tier sales, while alternative TLDs and selected ccTLDs continue to play a meaningful but clearly more selective role at the upper end of the market.

In 2025, ccTLDs continued to play a central role on the Sedo marketplace, driven by sustained demand for local branding, regional SEO and market-specific online presence. Sales activity remained high across several country-code extensions, confirming ccTLDs as a stable and relevant segment of the aftermarket.

A notable development was the strong presence of .ai domains within ccTLD sales, reflecting the ongoing relevance of AI-related naming beyond the traditional gTLD space. In addition, UK domains showed a clear recovery, with .co.uk and .uk achieving several high-value transactions and regaining momentum after a quieter period. By contrast, .co performed less strongly in 2025, indicating a shift in buyer focus toward either well-established European ccTLDs or AI-linked extensions.

Within individual markets, .de sales remained highly consistent year over year, with price levels largely unchanged and one standout sale acting as a clear highlight rather than a broader trend. For .es domains, a striking number of English-language keywords appeared among the top sales, while .fr continued to show a stable, locally focused profile, with French-language terms dominating transactions. Overall, ccTLD performance in 2025 underlines the importance of regional relevance combined with global thematic trends.

In 2025, SedoMLS played a more prominent role than ever in the aftermarket. For the first time, the majority of transactions were completed via SedoMLS partner channels rather than directly on the Sedo marketplace, signaling a clear structural shift in buyer behavior.

SedoMLS sales were driven primarily by .com domains, highlighting strong end-user demand for globally recognized extensions within registrar and hosting environments.

Overall, the 2025 data confirms SedoMLS as a key driver of aftermarket liquidity, expanding domain visibility while connecting premium domains with end users at the point of registration.

Fixed-price (Buy Now) domain sales clearly strengthened their position on the Sedo marketplace, becoming the dominant transaction type. This development reflects a growing preference for fast, transparent purchasing processes, particularly among end users seeking immediate acquisition without negotiation.

At the same time, brokerage and auction-based sales remained relevant, especially for higher-quality and premium domains. While these sales types represent a smaller share of overall transactions, they continue to play an important role for complex negotiations and high-value assets.

Overall, sales type distribution in 2025 indicates a market increasingly driven by efficiency and accessibility, while still offering flexible options for premium and ultra-premium domain transactions.

Sedo’s marketplace data shows that the domain aftermarket is largely driven by transactions in the lower and mid-price segments, which account for the majority of sales. While high-value domains continue to attract attention, most trading activity takes place at price levels accessible to startups, small businesses and investors.

Seller feedback reflects a similar pattern, with most respondents reporting sales in the sub-$10,000 range. At the same time, survey results highlight broader market dynamics influencing pricing, particularly the limited availability of strong .com domains, as well as AI and technology trends and the global economic environment.

Together, these insights underline that while premium sales shape market perception, the mid-market remains the core driver of domain trading activity.

Very short domain names commanded the highest median prices on the Sedo marketplace, with one- and two-character domains standing out as the most valuable segment.

Beyond ultra-short names, descriptive domains in the .com namespace typically performed best in the five- to eight-character range, where clarity and memorability align with broad commercial usability.

Overall, the 2025 distribution confirms established pricing dynamics: as names get longer, median values tend to decline, reinforcing the premium placed on brevity and brandability.

An analysis of keyword demand on the Sedo marketplace throughout the year 2025 highlights a small number of highly consistent themes driving buyer interest. AI clearly dominated keyword searches, appearing in every month and frequently ranking at the top. This reflects sustained demand for AI-related domains across a wide range of industries, well beyond the core tech sector.

Alongside AI, Crypto, Bet and Casino remained consistently strong performers. These keywords form a stable demand cluster, combining finance, investment, and online gaming. Despite market volatility and regulatory uncertainty, buyer interest in these segments remained resilient throughout the year.

In the second half of the year, Chat gained noticeable momentum, indicating growing demand for domains linked to conversational AI, automation, and digital interaction. This shift suggests that buyers are increasingly focusing on user-facing technologies and communication-driven business models.

Overall, Sedo marketplace data shows a clear balance between long-term demand drivers and emerging trends. While AI and gambling-related keywords continue to anchor the market, newer themes are gaining traction without displacing established demand patterns.

• Bitcoin & crypto-related variants: increasing keyword diversification
• Energy: growing interest in sustainability-driven domains
• Cloud: steady demand for infrastructure-focused names
• Dubai: strong regional and investment-related appeal
• Digital / Code / Deep: rising technical and development-oriented terms

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