Quite the opposite. Most of the well run ccTLDs have seen an increase in registrations during the Covid pandemic. Some of this is due to unemployed people setting up new businesses. Eurid (the .EU registry) has been trying to inflate the .EU with discounted registrations. the Brexit issue has caused problems for UK registrants of .EU domain names but a lot of that is down to the European Commission who have, at times, given Eurid contradictory directions on what to do with these registrations. As a ccTLD, the .EU is almost completely ignored in the EU and typically has only a few % of each country's domain name footprint. The ccTLD registries are often a lot more answerable than gTLD registries to their registrant community. ICANN has its rules and the ccTLD registries have their rules. If you are going to invest in ccTLDs, it is necessary to be aware of those rules. The other aspect is that ccTLD dynamics are often quite different to that of .COM or the other gTLDs. They are also generally smaller than .COM.
There is nothing like "next break-out TLD". IMO it is best to invest in meaningful, right.left combinations. It does not matter really what exactly is .left, if you can get the good meaning across the dot with sustainable yearly renewal fee
Perhaps with some politically unstable countries, but in others like Australia, ccTLD (.au) is preferred over .com for commercial purposes because there are very strict controls over ownership.
It has declined somewhat since the 1.9M count and was at about 1.65M at the start of September. Some of that decline is discounted registrations washing out of the zone. It really is an undervalued ccTLD. The problem was that it has been competing with the de-facto US ccTLD (.COM) and the registry found it very difficult to match .COM's dominance of the US market. I really would have liked to have seen Bob Parson's Godaddy take over .US ccTLD earlier because it is one amazing marketing operation. It would have really helped the growth of the ccTLD. At the moment, it is not a first choice TLD for US registrants. It will take a while for that to change. The best thing that domainers could do with .US registrations is to develop websites on them.
A great breakout TLD for 2010 when there was far less competition. It was very well marketed and had a good uptake. The situation in late 2020 has changed and there are hundreds of new gTLDs that are struggling and many ccTLDs that have grown rapidly since then. I think that .CO has peaked at around 2 million registration but the registry no longer publishes statistics. The current number is probably much less than that. One of the indications is the high reg fee and renewal fee. That's generally a sign of a registry trying to hold on to existing registrations. It is the sunk cost fallacy in that domainers think a domain name is worth more after they renew it a few times and the holders of brand protection registrations keep renewing them because they think that the TLD is important.
.co tld is second Premium and commercial use tld in world because .com domain is already oversubscribe than next future is .co.
