Domain Name Industry Continues Growth Trajectory in March 2026

The domain name ecosystem reached 356,797,194 registrations in March 2026, demonstrating continued expansion despite varying performance across TLDs.

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 Q1 2026 Earnings · 2026-03-31
  GoDaddy reported first quarter revenue of $1.3 billion, up 6% year-over-year. Core Platform revenue was $831.3 million, up 12% year-over-year. GoDaddy expects total revenue in the range of $1.285 billion to $1.305 billion for Q2 2026, and reaffirms full-year revenue guidance of $5.195 billion to $5.275 billion, representing 6% year-over-year growth. — SEC Filing ↗
• pricing.com Registry Fee Increase Announced · 2026-03-31
  Verisign announced it will increase the annual registry-level wholesale fee for each new and renewal .com domain name registration from $10.26 to $10.97 effective November 1, 2026. — SEC Filing ↗
• policyGoDaddy’s 2026 Pivot · 2026-03-27
  GoDaddy is focusing on an ANS trust layer for AI agents and expanding Airo, while also preparing for the next gTLD round. — ASOasis ↗
• earningsIONOS Q1 2026 Results · 2026-03-31
  IONOS reported revenue increased by 5.7% to €348.4 million (Q1 2025: €329.6 million). Adjusted EBITDA rose by 4.8% to €118.2 million (Q1 2025: €112.8 million). The customer base grew by approximately 180,000 to 6.81 million customers. — EQS News ↗
• legalGoDaddy Pricing Shift and Legal Scrutiny · 2026-03-26
  GoDaddy's pricing changes sparked legal scrutiny and resulted in a 14% stock crash. — AI Invest ↗
• policyICANN Contractual Compliance Report · 2026-03-31
  ICANN published its Contractual Compliance Report as of March 31, 2026. — ICANN ↗

Overview

The total number of domain names across all tracked Top-Level Domains (TLDs) reached 356,797,194 in March 2026, representing a year-over-year growth of 6.47%. This figure is comprised of 256,630,837 generic TLDs (gTLDs) and 100,166,357 country-code TLDs (ccTLDs).

Growth Leaders

Several gTLDs experienced substantial percentage growth in March. .xyz led with an impressive 82.5% year-over-year increase, reaching a total of 8,716,200 registrations. .top followed with 78.9% growth, totaling 6,680,397 registrations. .beer saw the highest percentage increase amongst gainers, with 703%, reaching 114,177 registrations. However, it’s important to note that these high percentage gains are often from a smaller base.

Looking at absolute growth, .com added the most registrations with a year-over-year increase of 6,357,438, bringing its total to 167,307,358. .xyz added 3,940,223 registrations, and .top added 2,945,257. This highlights the continued dominance of established TLDs in driving overall industry growth.

Notable Declines

While the industry overall is expanding, some TLDs experienced declines. .today saw the largest percentage decrease, falling by 63.6% year-over-year to 218,857 registrations. .tokyo followed with a 48.3% decrease, totaling 99,380 registrations. .buzz experienced a 44.6% decline to 199,514 registrations.

In absolute terms, .us experienced the largest drop, losing 507,716 registrations, resulting in a total of 2,028,650. .net saw a decrease of 228,711 registrations, while .lol lost 217,195 registrations.

Registrar Landscape

Registrar data indicates a total of 256,629,476 registrations managed through tracked registrars. GoDaddy maintains the largest market share at 25%, with a total of 64,065,039 registrations and a 5.7% year-over-year increase, adding 3,466,126 registrations. Namecheap follows with 8.2% market share and 21,003,216 registrations, exhibiting a significant 25.7% growth, adding 4,287,586 registrations.

The largest year-over-year swing was observed at GMO Internet, with a 147.9% increase, adding 6,205,566 registrations to reach 10,401,681. Tucows (Enom/OpenSRS/Ascio/Hover) experienced a 5% decline, losing 684,318 registrations.

Market Activity

March 2026 saw 8,126,656 new domain creations, 11,928,269 renewals, and 5,932,183 deletions. This resulted in a net increase of 2,194,473 registrations. There were 777,514 domain transfers recorded during the month. The positive net additions indicate a healthy level of activity and continued demand for domain names.

Country-Code Movers & New Arrivals

Amongst ccTLDs, .id experienced the highest growth at 13.8%, reaching 1,370,933 registrations. .pt followed with 8.3% growth, totaling 2,088,072 registrations, and .ma grew by 8.1% to 133,977 registrations. Conversely, .us saw a 20% decline to 2,028,650 registrations. .nu experienced a 5.2% decrease, while .nl saw a 1.3% decline.

No new TLDs were reported as launching in March 2026. No milestones were reported for this period.

By the numbers

Exact figures for March 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