A Look at Domain Registration Trends in 2026
Every year, domain registries – the organizations that manage domain extensions, and major domain registrars publish reports on domain registration trends.
These reports provide a valuable overview of the market, but they cover all domain registrations across every type of customer and service.
While they are useful for identifying broad industry trends, they don’t always reflect the behavior of individual customers.
Our perspective is a little different.
Every day, we process domain registrations from real people and businesses building real websites.
That gives us a unique view of how customers actually choose and use domain names.
Based on this data, we’ve compiled our own report.
Here’s what the domain registration market looks like in mid 2026.
.COM is still the most sought-after TLD
Despite becoming increasingly difficult to find available names, .COM remains the clear favorite.
For the past six years, .COM registrations have consistently accounted for 68% to 70% of all domain registrations processed through our platform, with no signs of that changing.
So far in 2026, the numbers closely match previous years, confirming that .COM continues to be the first choice for most customers.
One factor contributing to its continued popularity is the rise of AI-powered tools, which make it easier for people to brainstorm creative, brandable domain names that are still available.
.COM also tops the renewal chart, with an average renewal rate of around 75%. In other words, customers who register a .COM domain are likely to keep it for years, making it an excellent source of recurring revenue.
If you’re selling domain names, .COM should always be at the center of your portfolio and featured prominently throughout your website.
.ORG and .NET are a distant second
In 2026, the legacy generic TLDs continue to dominate after .COM.
While .COM accounts for nearly 70% of registrations, .ORG comes in second with approximately 7% of all domain registrations.
Originally intended for non-profit organizations, charities, and open-source projects, .ORG has long expanded beyond its original purpose and remains a popular choice for many different types of websites.
.NET follows closely behind with around 4.5% of total registrations.
Both extensions also enjoy excellent customer retention, with renewal rates of roughly 80%.
Just like .COM, customers who register a .ORG or .NET domain are very likely to renew it at least once.
If your goal is to maximize recurring revenue from domain sales, focusing on .COM, .ORG, and .NET remains a sound long-term strategy.
Country-code TLDs round out the top five
Country-code TLDs (ccTLDs) continue to hold a strong position in the market.
Their popularity has remained steady over the past few years, with only modest growth.
The most popular country-code extensions in our data this year are:
Each accounts for roughly 1.5% of total registrations.
Like the legacy generic TLDs, these extensions also enjoy high renewal rates of around 80%, making them another reliable source of recurring revenue.
Note: Some industry reports rank .CN and .DE among the most popular country-code domains. We haven’t observed the same trend in our data, likely because our customer base differs from the broader global market.
.AI is rising rapidly
The rapid adoption of AI tools and services continues to fuel demand for .AI domains.
This year, .AI registrations are on track to be roughly twice what they were in 2025.
Even so, the extension still represents only about 0.6% of all domain registrations on our platform.
That share is expected to grow throughout the year as AI becomes more mainstream and more businesses launch AI-focused products and services.
Recent announcements around AI agents, including those made during Google I/O, are likely to accelerate this trend even further during the second half of 2026.
New TLDs are still trailing the pack
New generic TLDs experienced a significant surge during the pandemic, at one point accounting for around 10% of all domain registrations.
In recent years, however, their combined share has settled back to approximately 6%.
The most popular new TLDs on our platform in 2026 include:
Although these extensions serve a wide variety of purposes, they have one thing in common: most are broad, generic names rather than industry-specific extensions.
Many are also available through our platform at promotional first-year prices, making them attractive to cost-conscious buyers.
Their biggest weakness remains customer retention.
Unlike .COM, .ORG, .NET, or country-code domains, most new TLDs have renewal rates of only 25% to 30%.
Predictions for the second half of 2026
Over the past few years, the domain market has remained remarkably stable, with no dramatic shifts in customer behavior.
While we expect total registrations in 2026 to exceed those of 2025, the increase is likely to be modest.
Based on the data we’ve seen so far, the trends from the first half of the year are expected to continue throughout the remainder of 2026.
.COM will almost certainly remain the dominant extension, although we anticipate another registry price increase around September.
.ORG recently experienced its first wholesale price increase in nearly a decade, with prices rising by approximately 12%.
We don’t expect this to significantly reduce new registrations, although it may have a small impact on renewal rates as some customers choose not to renew secondary domains.
Finally, .AI is on track for its strongest year yet. Registrations are expected to double – or possibly even triple, compared to 2025, with the second half of the year likely outperforming the first.
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Trends come and go, but understanding what customers actually buy is one of the best ways to grow your business.
We hope these insights help you build a stronger domain offering and make the most of the opportunities the rest of 2026 has to offer.
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