401.6 million domain names were registered across every top-level domain worldwide at the end of Q2 2026, according to Verisign’s Domain Name Industry Brief (DNIB), the industry’s standard registration count. That is up 8.1% from Q2 2025 and up 2.3% from the prior quarter. The number has grown almost every quarter since the DNIB began tracking it, and the mix behind it has shifted more than the headline figure suggests.
If you register or manage a website, the practical question is not just how big the internet’s namespace is, it is which TLD categories are gaining ground and what that means for the terms you publish alongside your domain. Here is the current data, broken down by TLD type, growth rate, and history.
How many domain names are registered worldwide?
At the close of Q2 2026 (June 30, 2026), Verisign counted 401.6 million domain name registrations across all TLDs, an increase of 9.1 million from Q1 2026 and 29.9 million from Q2 2025. This is the most cited figure in the domain industry because Verisign operates the .com and .net registries directly and aggregates registry-level data from other TLD operators, rather than relying on crawler-based estimates.
Figure 1: Share of the 401.6 million worldwide registrations by TLD category. Source: Verisign Domain Name Industry Brief, Q2 2026.
Growth was positive across every category this quarter, but not evenly. The next section breaks down which TLDs are actually driving the increase.
Which TLDs are growing the fastest?
New generic TLDs grew 34.0% year over year, more than four times the growth rate of the legacy .com and .net namespace. Verisign’s Q2 2026 DNIB reports .com and .net combined at 179.1 million registrations (up 5.1% year over year), ccTLDs at 148.6 million (up 3.6%), new gTLDs at 52.9 million (up 34.0%), and other legacy gTLDs at 21.0 million (up 14.9%).
Figure 2: Year-over-year registration growth by TLD category. Source: Verisign DNIB, Q2 2026.
New gTLDs such as .shop, .app, and .online are growing off a smaller base, so a 34.0% increase adds fewer domains in absolute terms than a few points of growth on .com. Both figures matter for different reasons: the growth rate shows where registrants are experimenting, and the absolute count shows where the installed base of live websites still sits.
How big is .com compared to everything else?
.com alone accounts for 166.6 million registrations, making it the single largest TLD in the world by a wide margin. Adding .net brings the combined legacy Verisign namespace to 179.1 million, or 44.6% of all registered domains. Separately, as of July 2026, W3Techs’ live crawl-based survey of active websites finds .com used by 43.6% of sites it indexes, with .org a distant second at 4.0%. That web-usage figure is a rolling, continuously updated source rather than a fixed count, so treat it as directional rather than a registration total.
| TLD category | Registrations (Q2 2026) | Share of total | YoY growth |
|---|---|---|---|
| .com / .net | 179.1 million | 44.6% | 5.1% |
| ccTLDs | 148.6 million | 37.0% | 3.6% |
| New gTLDs | 52.9 million | 13.2% | 34.0% |
| Other legacy gTLDs | 21.0 million | 5.2% | 14.9% |
| Total | 401.6 million | 100% | 8.1% |
Table 1: Worldwide domain registrations by TLD category. Source: Verisign Domain Name Industry Brief, Q2 2026.
Registering the name is only the first step. Once a domain is live, the site behind it still needs its own terms and conditions to define acceptable use, liability limits, and dispute terms, separately from anything the domain registrar’s own contract covers.
Which countries have the most ccTLD registrations?
Country-code domains such as .de, .uk, and .cn made up 148.6 million registrations at the end of Q2 2026, about 37.0% of the worldwide total. China (.cn), Tokelau (.tk), Germany (.de), the United Kingdom (.uk), the Netherlands (.nl), and Russia (.ru) hold the largest individual ccTLD bases, and the top ten ccTLDs together account for more than five-eighths of all registered ccTLD domains. An earlier Verisign count put the ccTLD total at roughly 153 million domains as of March 2022, so the category has grown modestly in absolute terms while its share of the overall namespace has slipped as new gTLDs expand faster.
Figure 3: Positioning each TLD category by worldwide share and year-over-year growth rate. Source: Verisign DNIB, Q2 2026.
ccTLDs sit in the “legacy giant” quadrant: a large installed base with comparatively slow growth, similar to .com/.net but built from national registries rather than one global operator. New gTLDs sit opposite, small but expanding fastest.
How has the total domain count grown over time?
The registered domain count has grown from a rounding error to nearly half a billion over three decades. In 1992, fewer than 15,000 .com domains existed. By Q1 2015 the internet had crossed 294 million total registrations across all TLDs. By the end of 2023 the count reached 359.8 million, and by Q2 2026 it stood at 401.6 million.
Figure 4: Milestones in worldwide domain registration counts. Sources: Wikipedia domain name history citations and Verisign DNIB archives.
Growth has not been a straight line. Some quarters show flat or negative totals as low-cost promotional registrations lapse at renewal, which is why Verisign reports both quarter-over-quarter and year-over-year figures rather than a single trend number.
What decides which TLD a new website should register?
Most registrants pick a TLD based on audience reach rather than novelty, and the data backs that instinct: .com and ccTLDs together still account for more than four out of five registered domains, even after a decade of new gTLD launches.
Figure 5: A simplified decision path registrants commonly follow when choosing a TLD. Illustrative, based on registration share data above rather than a published survey.
Whichever TLD a site lands on, the underlying legal documentation should be treated as separate from the registration itself. A domain registrar’s terms govern the name; they do not cover what happens on the website built under it.
The Bottom Line
The internet’s domain namespace crossed 401.6 million registrations in Q2 2026, growing 8.1% year over year, and the growth is no longer concentrated in .com. New gTLDs grew 34.0% this year, more than six times the .com/.net growth rate, even though .com still anchors 44.6% of everything registered when combined with .net. If you are launching or renewing a site, the TLD decision affects discoverability and renewal cost, but it has no bearing on your legal obligations to visitors. Every domain, regardless of extension, needs its own terms and conditions covering acceptable use and liability, separate from whatever the registrar’s contract says. For context on how fast new sites are entering this namespace in the first place, see how many new websites launch every day, and how that maps to small business website adoption.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many domains are registered worldwide in 2026? 401.6 million domain names were registered across all top-level domains at the end of Q2 2026, per Verisign’s Domain Name Industry Brief. That is up 8.1% from Q2 2025 and up 2.3% from Q1 2026.
How many .com domains are there? .com had 166.6 million registrations at the end of Q2 2026, with .net adding another 12.5 million for a combined 179.1 million, according to Verisign. Together .com and .net make up 44.6% of all registered domains.
Are new gTLDs like .shop or .app growing? Yes, faster than any other TLD category. New generic TLDs reached 52.9 million registrations in Q2 2026, up 34.0% year over year, versus 5.1% growth for .com and .net and 3.6% for country-code TLDs.
What share of domains are country-code TLDs? Country-code TLDs (ccTLDs) such as .de, .uk, and .cn held 148.6 million registrations at the end of Q2 2026, about 37.0% of the worldwide total, according to Verisign’s DNIB. China, Tokelau, Germany, the UK, the Netherlands, and Russia hold the largest ccTLD bases.
Sources and References
- Verisign. (2026). “The Domain Name Industry Brief, Q2 2026.” Registry-level count of 401.6 million domains across all TLDs, period ending June 30, 2026.
- Verisign. Domain Name Industry Brief landing page and report archive.
- W3Techs. (2026). “Usage Statistics of Top Level Domains.” Live, continuously updated crawl-based survey; figures cited reflect July 2026.
- Wikipedia. “Domain name.” Historical registration milestones for 1992 and Q1 2015, cited to contemporary industry reporting.
- Wikipedia. “Country code top-level domain.” ccTLD ranking and March 2022 registration total.
Note: All figures verified as of August 2026. Domain registration counts are refreshed quarterly by Verisign, so headline figures on this page are revisited at least twice a year.
