domainlover2017
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I spent time going through real 2025–2026 industry data — not NameBio top sales lists, not "look at this whale sale" posts — actual market-level numbers. What I found genuinely surprised me. Some of this will challenge assumptions you've held for years.
1. .com just had its biggest growth year in a decade — while everyone said it was dying
Last year, .com hit 303.7 million registrations, growing +18% year-over-year, with 4.58 million new domains added in a single month. Dynadot To put that in context, that's more new registrations in one month than .me, .ai, and .dev have in total across their entire existence.
Everyone on domaining forums has been writing the .com obituary for five years. The data says the opposite. Average .com resale prices jumped +63.6% year-over-year to $23,264. Dynadot
The lesson: the "obvious" narrative in domaining is almost always wrong.
2. New gTLDs have a 32% renewal rate. Think about what that means.
New gTLDs drove volume growth, rising 21% year-over-year — but with only ~32.2% renewals, this segment reveals a "churn and burn" dynamic where millions of domains are registered for temporary campaigns, SEO experiments, or speculative plays, only to be abandoned after the first year. EuroDNS
That means roughly 7 out of 10 new gTLD registrations are gone within 12 months. When you see registration numbers for a trendy new extension, mentally cut them by two-thirds. That's the real user base.
.com's renewal rate sits at ~72.3% — more than double the new gTLD average. Nominus Renewal rate is the most honest signal of whether a domain is actually being used or just speculatively registered. It's the metric nobody quotes when hyping a new extension.
3. .org aftermarket prices nearly quadrupled — and almost nobody noticed
.org aftermarket prices nearly 4x'd to $51,747 — now more expensive than .com on the secondary market. Dynadot
Read that again. .org is averaging more on the aftermarket than .com. While everyone was chasing .ai and debating .io, .org quietly became the most expensive aftermarket extension per sale. Nobody is talking about this.
4. The entire aftermarket grew 67% in one year
2025 saw over 190,000 domain sales above $100, generating $314.7 million in total value — a 67% increase from 2024. Dynadot
The aftermarket is becoming a genuine asset class. Not a hobby, not a side hustle — an asset class. For context, that's a bigger single-year growth jump than most stock market indices. And that's only reported sales. The real number, including private transactions, is significantly higher.
5. 54% of startups now launch on a non-.com domain
An Identity Digital study of over 4,000 startups confirms: 54% of startups now use nTLDs as their primary domain. Exact brand match availability is far higher with nTLDs — 85% vs 54% for .com — making them especially attractive to young companies that want a clean, affordable name. Snagged
This is the number that should keep .com investors up at night — or excite them, depending on how you read it. The generation of founders building companies right now grew up on apps, not websites. They don't have the same psychological attachment to .com that founders from 2005 did. Whether that changes domain values in 10 years is the real question.
6. .ai crossed 1 million registrations and averages $239,516 per aftermarket sale
.ai crossed 1 million registrations and averages $239,516 on the aftermarket. The $70 million ai.com sale set a new record. Dynadot
For comparison, .com averages $23,264 per aftermarket sale. .ai averages more than 10x that. Yes, the sample size of reported .ai aftermarket sales is smaller — but that ratio is extraordinary. The floor for what counts as a "good" .ai sale is higher than the ceiling was for most extensions five years ago.
7. .ai quadrupled in size in three years — and the Anguilla government is collecting the windfall
The .ai domain has quadrupled in size over the last three years, driven by registrations for artificial intelligence applications. Domain Name Wire
What most domainers don't think about: every .ai registration sends money to Anguilla — a Caribbean island with a population of about 18,000 people. The AI boom has quietly made a tiny British territory one of the most significant beneficiaries of the technology gold rush. The .ai registry fee is a meaningful percentage of the island's GDP. That's not a domain investing insight — it's just a fact that puts the scale of what's happening into perspective.
8. The new gTLD application window opens in 10 days — and the fee is $227,000
ICANN is opening applications for entirely new TLDs from April 30 to August 12, 2026 — the first new round since 2012, when roughly 2,000 applications produced over 1,200 new extensions. The application fee is $227,000. Dynadot
This is the biggest structural change to the domain namespace in 14 years and it's 10 days away. Every new TLD that gets approved in this round creates a new category of domains to speculate on before it launches — exactly like savvy investors did in 2012 by hand-registering premium names the moment new extensions opened. The playbook worked then and it will work again for whoever is paying attention.
The number that ties all of this together:
The global domain name market is set to rise from $10.49 billion in 2026 to $16.57 billion by 2035, growing at a CAGR of 5.1%. Snipd
The industry is not shrinking. It is not being disrupted out of existence by social media handles or AI-generated web presence. It is a $10 billion market growing steadily toward $17 billion, and most of the people on this forum are sitting in the middle of it with assets that will appreciate significantly if they hold the right names.
The data says this is still early. Act accordingly.
What number surprised you most? And what data do you track that most domainers ignore? Drop it below.
1. .com just had its biggest growth year in a decade — while everyone said it was dying
Last year, .com hit 303.7 million registrations, growing +18% year-over-year, with 4.58 million new domains added in a single month. Dynadot To put that in context, that's more new registrations in one month than .me, .ai, and .dev have in total across their entire existence.
Everyone on domaining forums has been writing the .com obituary for five years. The data says the opposite. Average .com resale prices jumped +63.6% year-over-year to $23,264. Dynadot
The lesson: the "obvious" narrative in domaining is almost always wrong.
2. New gTLDs have a 32% renewal rate. Think about what that means.
New gTLDs drove volume growth, rising 21% year-over-year — but with only ~32.2% renewals, this segment reveals a "churn and burn" dynamic where millions of domains are registered for temporary campaigns, SEO experiments, or speculative plays, only to be abandoned after the first year. EuroDNS
That means roughly 7 out of 10 new gTLD registrations are gone within 12 months. When you see registration numbers for a trendy new extension, mentally cut them by two-thirds. That's the real user base.
.com's renewal rate sits at ~72.3% — more than double the new gTLD average. Nominus Renewal rate is the most honest signal of whether a domain is actually being used or just speculatively registered. It's the metric nobody quotes when hyping a new extension.
3. .org aftermarket prices nearly quadrupled — and almost nobody noticed
.org aftermarket prices nearly 4x'd to $51,747 — now more expensive than .com on the secondary market. Dynadot
Read that again. .org is averaging more on the aftermarket than .com. While everyone was chasing .ai and debating .io, .org quietly became the most expensive aftermarket extension per sale. Nobody is talking about this.
4. The entire aftermarket grew 67% in one year
2025 saw over 190,000 domain sales above $100, generating $314.7 million in total value — a 67% increase from 2024. Dynadot
The aftermarket is becoming a genuine asset class. Not a hobby, not a side hustle — an asset class. For context, that's a bigger single-year growth jump than most stock market indices. And that's only reported sales. The real number, including private transactions, is significantly higher.
5. 54% of startups now launch on a non-.com domain
An Identity Digital study of over 4,000 startups confirms: 54% of startups now use nTLDs as their primary domain. Exact brand match availability is far higher with nTLDs — 85% vs 54% for .com — making them especially attractive to young companies that want a clean, affordable name. Snagged
This is the number that should keep .com investors up at night — or excite them, depending on how you read it. The generation of founders building companies right now grew up on apps, not websites. They don't have the same psychological attachment to .com that founders from 2005 did. Whether that changes domain values in 10 years is the real question.
6. .ai crossed 1 million registrations and averages $239,516 per aftermarket sale
.ai crossed 1 million registrations and averages $239,516 on the aftermarket. The $70 million ai.com sale set a new record. Dynadot
For comparison, .com averages $23,264 per aftermarket sale. .ai averages more than 10x that. Yes, the sample size of reported .ai aftermarket sales is smaller — but that ratio is extraordinary. The floor for what counts as a "good" .ai sale is higher than the ceiling was for most extensions five years ago.
7. .ai quadrupled in size in three years — and the Anguilla government is collecting the windfall
The .ai domain has quadrupled in size over the last three years, driven by registrations for artificial intelligence applications. Domain Name Wire
What most domainers don't think about: every .ai registration sends money to Anguilla — a Caribbean island with a population of about 18,000 people. The AI boom has quietly made a tiny British territory one of the most significant beneficiaries of the technology gold rush. The .ai registry fee is a meaningful percentage of the island's GDP. That's not a domain investing insight — it's just a fact that puts the scale of what's happening into perspective.
8. The new gTLD application window opens in 10 days — and the fee is $227,000
ICANN is opening applications for entirely new TLDs from April 30 to August 12, 2026 — the first new round since 2012, when roughly 2,000 applications produced over 1,200 new extensions. The application fee is $227,000. Dynadot
This is the biggest structural change to the domain namespace in 14 years and it's 10 days away. Every new TLD that gets approved in this round creates a new category of domains to speculate on before it launches — exactly like savvy investors did in 2012 by hand-registering premium names the moment new extensions opened. The playbook worked then and it will work again for whoever is paying attention.
The number that ties all of this together:
The global domain name market is set to rise from $10.49 billion in 2026 to $16.57 billion by 2035, growing at a CAGR of 5.1%. Snipd
The industry is not shrinking. It is not being disrupted out of existence by social media handles or AI-generated web presence. It is a $10 billion market growing steadily toward $17 billion, and most of the people on this forum are sitting in the middle of it with assets that will appreciate significantly if they hold the right names.
The data says this is still early. Act accordingly.
What number surprised you most? And what data do you track that most domainers ignore? Drop it below.
they don’t know… and try to do it all within 24hrs 
