Domain Industry Report: February 2026

The domain name ecosystem saw continued growth in February 2026, reaching 354,142,386 registrations, a 6.21% year-over-year increase.

Written with google/gemma-3-27b-it from primary registry data · 2026-07-24

This month in domains — the news

Everything an industry insider should have caught this month — M&A, earnings from listed registrars & hosters, leadership moves, ICANN & policy, pricing, security. Gathered from public sources; each headline links to its origin — please verify via the linked source.

• earningsGoDaddy Reports Fourth Quarter and Fiscal Year 2025 Results · 2026-02-24
  GoDaddy reported total revenue of $5.0 billion, up 8% year-over-year, and total bookings of $5.4 billion, up 7% year-over-year. They expect total revenue in the range of $5.195 billion to $5.275 billion for the full year 2026, representing 6% growth. — Nasdaq ↗
• earningsVeriSign Reports Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2025 Results · 2026-02-05
  VeriSign reported revenue of $1.66 billion for 2025, up 6.4% from 2024, with net income of $826 million and diluted EPS of $8.81. They ended 2025 with 173.5 million .com and .net domain name registrations, a 2.6% increase. — VeriSign Investor Relations ↗
• earningsTucows Reports Strong Fiscal 2025 Results; Beats Guidance · 2026-02-24
  Tucows reported increased profitability across its businesses, with full-year revenue increasing 8% versus the prior year. They generated $54.45 in revenue, exceeding guidance by $3.45. — Tucows ↗
• legalGoDaddy declares 21 million customers “business users” overnight - strips consumer protections, overhauls arbitration, and locks down dispute rights · 2026-02-20
  GoDaddy reclassified 21 million customers as “business users,” removing consumer protections and altering dispute resolution processes. — webhosting.today ↗
• policyICANN FY26 Quarterly Management Financials · 2026-02-12
  ICANN released unaudited financial results for the six months ending December 31, 2025, comparing them to prior periods. — ICANN ↗

Overview

As of February 2026, a total of 354,142,386 domain names were registered across all tracked Top-Level Domains, representing a year-over-year growth rate of 6.21%. This total is comprised of 254,190,370 generic Top-Level Domains (gTLDs) and 99,952,016 country-code Top-Level Domains (ccTLDs).

Fastest Growth & Biggest Movers

The fastest percentage growth among gTLDs was observed in .xyz, increasing by 91.9% year-over-year. .top followed with an 85.2% increase. However, examining absolute gains reveals a different picture. .com experienced the largest absolute increase, adding 5,522,817 registrations, representing 3.4% growth. .xyz added 4,177,735 registrations, and .top added 3,007,374. This highlights the difference between percentage gains – often seen with smaller TLDs – and substantial volume increases.

Notable Declines

Several gTLDs experienced registration declines. .lol saw the most significant percentage decrease, falling by 60.3% year-over-year. .today registered a 57.8% decline. In terms of absolute losses, .us experienced the largest decrease, losing 465,740 registrations (-18.6%). .lol lost 441,135 registrations, and .today lost 346,614. .net saw a decrease of 281,707 registrations, representing a -2.2% change.

Registrar Landscape

Across all registrars, a total of 250,404,268 domain names were managed. GoDaddy maintains the largest market share with 62,060,455 domains (24.8%), showing a 2.4% year-over-year increase, equivalent to 1,440,735 registrations. Namecheap follows with 20,326,946 domains (8.1%), a substantial 23.8% increase of 3,909,158 registrations. Significant shifts in registrar portfolios, such as the 141.6% growth (5,756,479 registrations) for GMO Internet, often indicate bulk portfolio transfers.

Tucows (Enom/OpenSRS/Ascio/Hover) experienced a decrease of 5.9% (-810,972 registrations).

Market Activity

February 2026 saw 6,445,648 new domain registrations, alongside 10,040,736 renewals. A total of 6,598,154 domain names were deleted, and 624,068 were transferred between registrars. The net change in registrations was -152,506, indicating a slight contraction in the total domain portfolio.

Country-Code Movers & New Arrivals

Among ccTLDs, .id exhibited the strongest growth with a 17.4% increase. .pt followed with 8.3% growth, and .ma saw an 8.1% increase. Conversely, .us experienced a significant decline of 18.6%. .nu decreased by 5.1% and .nl by 1.6%. No new TLDs were reported during February 2026. No milestones were reported.

By the numbers

Exact figures for February 2026, each linking to the registry file it came from.

Biggest TLDs

Fastest growing (gTLD, YoY %)

Biggest movers by volume (net domains YoY)

Fastest shrinking (gTLD, YoY %)

Country-code movers

Registrar families

Numbers are exact registry figures; each links to its source file. See the live data on All TLDs. ← All reports