Domain Name Registrations Reach 357.2 Million in May 2026

Global domain portfolio expanded by 6.02% year-over-year, driven by gains in generic Top-Level Domains.

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.

• earningsIONOS Reports Successful Start to Fiscal Year 2026 · 2026-05-12
  IONOS Group SE reported revenue of €348.4 million, up 5.7% (7.6% currency-adjusted) for the first quarter of 2026, with adjusted EBITDA rising 4.8% to €118.2 million. The company now has 6.81 million customers, a significant increase from 6.40 million in Q1 2025, and expects full-year revenue growth of approximately 7% (8% excluding currency effects) and adjusted EBITDA to rise to approximately €530 million. — EQS News ↗
• earningsTucows Reports First Quarter 2026 Results · 2026-05-07
  Tucows reported consolidated net revenue of $96.7 million for Q1 2026, a 2.0% increase from $94.6 million in Q1 2025. Revenue gains were driven by strong performance at Ting. — Newswire ↗
• policyICANN Opens New gTLD Program Application Window · 2026-05-16
  ICANN has opened the application window for the New gTLD Program: 2026 Round, allowing organizations to apply to run new internet domain endings for the first time in over a decade. The application window closes August 20, 2026. — securitybrief.co.uk ↗
• cctldThe DNIB Quarterly Report Q1 2026 · 2026-05-01
  The Domain Name Industry Brief reported 163.2 million domain name registrations at the end of Q1 2026, compared to 153.1 million at the end of Q1 2025, representing a 6.6% increase. The net TLD share is 76.3%. — DNIB ↗

Overview

As of May 2026, a total of 357,224,169 domain names were registered across all tracked Top-Level Domains. This represents a year-over-year increase of 6.02%. The domain name ecosystem is comprised of 256,630,837 generic Top-Level Domains (gTLDs) and 100,593,332 country-code Top-Level Domains (ccTLDs).

Growth Leaders

The strongest percentage growth among gTLDs was observed in .beer, increasing by 686% year-over-year. .forum followed with a 321.6% increase, and .qpon saw growth of 263.1%. However, it’s important to consider absolute gains alongside percentage changes.

Looking at absolute increases, .com led with a gain of 6,168,933 registrations, representing a 3.8% year-over-year increase. .xyz added 3,730,651 registrations (74.8% YoY), and .top registered 2,168,224 new names (48.1% YoY). .info saw an absolute increase of 1,305,834 (30.7% YoY), while .bond registered 651,333 new domains (124.2% YoY) and .org added 532,327 (4.5% YoY).

Notable Declines

Several gTLDs experienced declines in registrations. .today saw the largest percentage decrease, falling by 61% year-over-year. .buzz decreased by 42.2%, and .group by 37.2%. In terms of absolute losses, .us experienced the most significant drop, with a decrease of 616,301 registrations (-24.2% YoY). .net saw a decrease of 184,962 (-1.4% YoY).

Registrar Landscape

Registrar data is not available for this reporting period.

Market Activity

Domain name activity in May 2026 indicates a net positive growth. There were 69,299 creates recorded. Data for renewals, deletes, and transfers are unavailable. The net addition of registrations was 69,299 across 1,293 tracked TLDs.

Country-Code Movers & New Arrivals

Among ccTLDs, .id showed the strongest growth with a 13.8% year-over-year increase, alongside a 1.84% month-over-month increase. .ma increased by 12% YoY, and .pt by 8.3%. Conversely, .us experienced a significant decline of 24.2% YoY. .nu decreased by 3.5% YoY, and .ua by 0.8%.

No new TLDs were reported this month. Milestones were not reported.

By the numbers

Exact figures for May 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

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