The first six months of 2024 resulted in just over 69,600 NameBio-listed domain sales, with a total reported dollar volume of about $85.5 million. Of course many sales are not reported in NameBio, so this is by no means the entire domain name market.
That is a increase of 29.6% in sales dollar volume compared to the same six months of 2023.
In this article I use the same procedure I have since 2019, including all sales in the Namebio main database for the first six months of each year. NameBio-listed sales are a combination of wholesale acquisitions and retail sales. While the number of sales is dominated by wholesale transactions, the total sales dollar volume, while representing a mix, is strongly influenced by high-value retail sales. I consider total dollar volume to be a good indicator of domain name market health.
When I looked at this topic a year ago, almost all sectors of the market were down during the first six months of 2023. The picture is definitely brighter for the first half of 2024, with total dollar volume slightly above the 2022 peak, and much above the first half of 2023.
While the data analysis was the same, this year I am presenting the data in decreasing order of dollar volume.
1. Most Sales Are .COM
The dollar volume in .com alone was up significantly from the same period last year, from $66.0 million in 2023 to $85.5 million in 2024, an increase of 29.5%. There were not actually more names sold, but the prices had increased significantly, on average.
The .com extension continues to represent most of the aftermarket. In the first six months of 2024, .com accounted for 73.7% of all sales by dollar volume, that is down from 78.5% in each of the previous two surveys.
The graph below shows the dollar volume in
2. .AI Strong Growth
By dollar volume reported in NameBio, the second highest performer in the first half of 2024 was .ai, with more than $5.54 million in reported sales during the six months, more than quadrupling from the same period in 2023. The trend for the six year period is shown below.
3. .ORG
While .ai just edged out .org for second place, the first half of 2024 continued strong for .org, with dollar volume up 25.7% from the previous year, at about $5.03 million.
The 6 year patten (for the first half of each year) is shown for .org below. Keep in mind that each graph has a different axis scale.
4. .IO Rebounds
In the previous analysis .io had dipped significantly, but 2024 saw a rebound and .io was the fourth strongest extension over the first six months of 2024.
Sales in .io contributed almost $1.78 million during the first six months of 2024, up about 86% compared to relatively weak performance during the same period in 2023.
The six year pattern, for the first half of each year, for .io is shown below.
5. .NET Snags Fifth Place
Although the gap between .org and .net continues to grow each year, the .net extension had a relatively strong start to 2024, up 6.1% in dollar volume, and that was enough to hold fifth place. The dollar volume in .net over the first six months of 2024 was $1.57 million.
6. .DE Stays Strong
Germany’s .de extension is always one of the top performers, and that continued during the first half of 2024, with .de dollar volume of $1.27 million listed on NameBio, up 10% from the same period last year.
While .de earned sixth place, one should point out that with Sedo sales of $2000 and up listed on NameBio, European national extensions get a boost, and if we had data released by Afternic .de would probably not be quite this high.
It is surprising that there were no .de sales reported by NamePros members in almost six months of 2024 data I analyzed for Analysis of NamePros Reported Domain Name Sales.
7. .XYZ
While not at 2022 levels, .xyz is up 79.2% compared to 2023, based on stronger prices rather than more sales. The total NameBio-reported sales volume in .xyz was $1.25 million over the first half of 2024.
8. .BET
Perhaps a surprise. the 8th highest performer, in terms of total dollar volume, was .bet at just over $640,000, but that was largely due to a single sale, $600,000 for bet.bet in February.
9. .CO Up Slightly
The .co extension managed a 10.5% increase compared to the same six months of 2023, but at a .co dollar volume just above $400,000 the extension snagged ninth place.
10. .CC Down
After a stellar start last year, the .cc extension was down 25.5% in the first half of 2024, compared to 2023. The repurposed country code extension still produced just under $322,000 in NameBio-reported sales over the six months, enough for tenth place. It should be noted that the majority of these sales were in numerics.
11. .EU Down Slightly
The .eu extension had a strong start to 2023, and this year was almost as good, down 7.0%. That corresponded to just more than $308,000 in dollar volume over the six months.
Other Extensions
At least of those that I checked, these were the only 11 extensions with $300,000 or more in NameBio-reported sales over the six months. Below are extensions with between $100,000 and $300,000 in dollar volume, arranged in decreasing dollar volume.
Country Code Domains As A Whole
Country code domain names had the strongest start to year since I began tracking data in 2019. The dollar volume was more than $12.1 million over the six months, although keep in mind that just over $5.5 million of that was due to .ai alone. I show the six year trend below.
New Extensions Combined
Taken as a whole, new extension sales were strongly up in dollar volume compared to the first six months of 2023, although fell short of the 2022 peak. I show the six year trend below.
In the first six months of 2024, 35.9% of all new extension sales dollar volume was due to .xyz. That is down slightly from last year when it was 38.6%. During the first half of 2022 almost 2/3 of new extension sales volume was due to .xyz.
Notes
Keep in mind that this is a comparison of sales from the first six months of each year only. Economic and world events can have serious impacts in a short period of time. I do a similar analysis published in the NamePros Blog at the end of each year, comparing full year results.
Remember that most retail sales are not reported in NameBio. It is not clear if there are significant differences between extensions in the fraction of sales that are reported in NameBio.
Over the years, what gets reported in NameBio has changed. That impacts the data to some degree.
As for previous reports in this series, I collected the data right at the end of the six month period. That means sales reported later, but that occurred during the six month period, will not have been included. Therefore, you may find slightly different data if you later check NameBio. Since I was consistent in 2019, 2200, 2221, 2022 and 2223, however, there should not be a systematic bias.
Past Years
This is the fifth analysis, going back six years, of the first six months of the year. Here are links to the previous articles:
Sincere thanks to Namebio, an incredible resource for domain name sales data. It is their data that makes insights possible.
That is a increase of 29.6% in sales dollar volume compared to the same six months of 2023.
In this article I use the same procedure I have since 2019, including all sales in the Namebio main database for the first six months of each year. NameBio-listed sales are a combination of wholesale acquisitions and retail sales. While the number of sales is dominated by wholesale transactions, the total sales dollar volume, while representing a mix, is strongly influenced by high-value retail sales. I consider total dollar volume to be a good indicator of domain name market health.
When I looked at this topic a year ago, almost all sectors of the market were down during the first six months of 2023. The picture is definitely brighter for the first half of 2024, with total dollar volume slightly above the 2022 peak, and much above the first half of 2023.
While the data analysis was the same, this year I am presenting the data in decreasing order of dollar volume.
1. Most Sales Are .COM
The dollar volume in .com alone was up significantly from the same period last year, from $66.0 million in 2023 to $85.5 million in 2024, an increase of 29.5%. There were not actually more names sold, but the prices had increased significantly, on average.
The .com extension continues to represent most of the aftermarket. In the first six months of 2024, .com accounted for 73.7% of all sales by dollar volume, that is down from 78.5% in each of the previous two surveys.
The graph below shows the dollar volume in
.com sales, at least those reported in NameBio, over the first six months of each of the last six years.2. .AI Strong Growth
By dollar volume reported in NameBio, the second highest performer in the first half of 2024 was .ai, with more than $5.54 million in reported sales during the six months, more than quadrupling from the same period in 2023. The trend for the six year period is shown below.
3. .ORG
While .ai just edged out .org for second place, the first half of 2024 continued strong for .org, with dollar volume up 25.7% from the previous year, at about $5.03 million.
The 6 year patten (for the first half of each year) is shown for .org below. Keep in mind that each graph has a different axis scale.
4. .IO Rebounds
In the previous analysis .io had dipped significantly, but 2024 saw a rebound and .io was the fourth strongest extension over the first six months of 2024.
Sales in .io contributed almost $1.78 million during the first six months of 2024, up about 86% compared to relatively weak performance during the same period in 2023.
The six year pattern, for the first half of each year, for .io is shown below.
5. .NET Snags Fifth Place
Although the gap between .org and .net continues to grow each year, the .net extension had a relatively strong start to 2024, up 6.1% in dollar volume, and that was enough to hold fifth place. The dollar volume in .net over the first six months of 2024 was $1.57 million.
6. .DE Stays Strong
Germany’s .de extension is always one of the top performers, and that continued during the first half of 2024, with .de dollar volume of $1.27 million listed on NameBio, up 10% from the same period last year.
While .de earned sixth place, one should point out that with Sedo sales of $2000 and up listed on NameBio, European national extensions get a boost, and if we had data released by Afternic .de would probably not be quite this high.
It is surprising that there were no .de sales reported by NamePros members in almost six months of 2024 data I analyzed for Analysis of NamePros Reported Domain Name Sales.
7. .XYZ
While not at 2022 levels, .xyz is up 79.2% compared to 2023, based on stronger prices rather than more sales. The total NameBio-reported sales volume in .xyz was $1.25 million over the first half of 2024.
8. .BET
Perhaps a surprise. the 8th highest performer, in terms of total dollar volume, was .bet at just over $640,000, but that was largely due to a single sale, $600,000 for bet.bet in February.
9. .CO Up Slightly
The .co extension managed a 10.5% increase compared to the same six months of 2023, but at a .co dollar volume just above $400,000 the extension snagged ninth place.
10. .CC Down
After a stellar start last year, the .cc extension was down 25.5% in the first half of 2024, compared to 2023. The repurposed country code extension still produced just under $322,000 in NameBio-reported sales over the six months, enough for tenth place. It should be noted that the majority of these sales were in numerics.
11. .EU Down Slightly
The .eu extension had a strong start to 2023, and this year was almost as good, down 7.0%. That corresponded to just more than $308,000 in dollar volume over the six months.
Other Extensions
At least of those that I checked, these were the only 11 extensions with $300,000 or more in NameBio-reported sales over the six months. Below are extensions with between $100,000 and $300,000 in dollar volume, arranged in decreasing dollar volume.
- .app had just over $226,000 in dollar volume for the six months, down 14.1%.
- Canada’s .ca never has many sales listed on NameBio, but with strong prices it was next with $220,000, up more than 3x from the previous year.
- .tv is always a strong extension, and over the first half of 2024 there was a dollar volume of just over $191,000.
- India’s .in more than doubled, to a six-month dollar volume of almost $167,000.
- The .us extension was up 17.1%, to just over $153,000.
- The United Kingdom’s .co.uk resulted in almost $152,000 in reported sales, down 7.3% compared to 2023. The .uk TLD resulted in just over $21,000 additional UK sales.
- Close behind, the .vc extension, widely used for venture capital, had more than $151,000 in dollar volume, up 58.9% when compared to the same period in 2023.
- France’s .fr saw almost $150,000 in sales during the first six months of 2024.
- The Netherland’s .nl extension had more than $136,000 in volume, although that was down 17.4% from the same period in 2023.
- The .gg extension, repurposed for gaming, had the best opening six months of any of the past 6 years, with almost $129,000 in dollar volume.
- Despite being down 20.3%, the .art extension sill accounted for almost $121,000 over the six months.
- The .network extension is off to a strong start in 2024, with over $120,000 in dollar volume over the first 6 months, compared to just under $33,000 for the same period in 2023.
- The .info extension was up 22.2%, to more than $116,000.
Country Code Domains As A Whole
Country code domain names had the strongest start to year since I began tracking data in 2019. The dollar volume was more than $12.1 million over the six months, although keep in mind that just over $5.5 million of that was due to .ai alone. I show the six year trend below.
New Extensions Combined
Taken as a whole, new extension sales were strongly up in dollar volume compared to the first six months of 2023, although fell short of the 2022 peak. I show the six year trend below.
In the first six months of 2024, 35.9% of all new extension sales dollar volume was due to .xyz. That is down slightly from last year when it was 38.6%. During the first half of 2022 almost 2/3 of new extension sales volume was due to .xyz.
Notes
Keep in mind that this is a comparison of sales from the first six months of each year only. Economic and world events can have serious impacts in a short period of time. I do a similar analysis published in the NamePros Blog at the end of each year, comparing full year results.
Remember that most retail sales are not reported in NameBio. It is not clear if there are significant differences between extensions in the fraction of sales that are reported in NameBio.
Over the years, what gets reported in NameBio has changed. That impacts the data to some degree.
As for previous reports in this series, I collected the data right at the end of the six month period. That means sales reported later, but that occurred during the six month period, will not have been included. Therefore, you may find slightly different data if you later check NameBio. Since I was consistent in 2019, 2200, 2221, 2022 and 2223, however, there should not be a systematic bias.
Past Years
This is the fifth analysis, going back six years, of the first six months of the year. Here are links to the previous articles:
Sincere thanks to Namebio, an incredible resource for domain name sales data. It is their data that makes insights possible.
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