.com is used by 43.6% of the world’s live websites as of July 2026, according to W3Techs’ continuously updated crawl survey, more than the next 19 ranked TLDs combined. Behind that single dominant figure sits a much more fragmented namespace: 401.6 million domains registered worldwide across hundreds of TLDs, split between legacy generic domains, country-code domains, and a fast-growing tier of newer gTLDs like .shop and .xyz.
If you are choosing a TLD for a new site, or just trying to understand where the internet’s naming real estate actually sits, the ranked data below breaks it down by usage share, registration count, category, and growth rate.
Which TLD do the most websites use?
.com is the single most-used TLD on the web, appearing on 43.6% of websites that W3Techs’ crawler indexes, as of its July 2026 snapshot. The next closest competitor, .org, trails at just 4.0%, and .de rounds out the top three at 3.9%. This is a live, continuously updated survey based on crawled websites rather than a fixed registry count, so treat the exact decimal as directional and expect it to shift slightly month to month.
Figure 1: The 10 most-used top-level domains by share of live websites. Source: W3Techs, Usage Statistics of Top Level Domains, July 2026.
The gap between first and second place is the real story: .com alone outweighs the combined share of every other TLD in the top 20 ranked list further down this page.
What is the difference between a gTLD and a ccTLD?
A generic TLD (gTLD) is not tied to any country, while a country-code TLD (ccTLD) is assigned to a specific nation or territory. .com, .org, and newer entries like .shop fall into the gTLD category and are overseen by ICANN through contracted registry operators. .de, .uk, and .cn are ccTLDs, each run by that country’s own designated registry under its own rules.
Figure 2: How ICANN’s root zone splits into generic and country-code TLD categories. Source: ICANN root zone structure, cross-referenced with Verisign DNIB category definitions.
The distinction matters for site owners mainly around renewal rules and eligibility requirements. Some ccTLDs restrict registration to residents or local businesses, while gTLDs are open to registrants worldwide.
How many domains does each TLD category hold worldwide?
Of the 401.6 million domains registered worldwide at the end of Q2 2026, .com and .net together account for 179.1 million (44.6%), according to Verisign’s Domain Name Industry Brief (DNIB), the domain industry’s standard registry-level count. Verisign operates the .com and .net registries directly and aggregates registry data from other TLD operators, which makes the DNIB more reliable than crawler-based estimates for total registration counts.
Figure 3: Share of the 401.6 million worldwide registrations by TLD category. Source: Verisign Domain Name Industry Brief, Q2 2026.
| 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.
Registration counts and website usage share tell different stories. A TLD can hold millions of registrations while showing up on very few live sites, because a large share of registered domains are parked, redirected, or held defensively rather than published as active websites.
How has .com’s dominance grown since 1992?
.com went from fewer than 15,000 registered domains in 1992 to 166.6 million by Q2 2026. By December 2014, .com had already reached 115.6 million registrations, according to contemporary industry reporting cited on Wikipedia. That means .com alone added roughly 51 million more domains between the end of 2014 and mid-2026, even as hundreds of new TLDs launched to compete for registrants.
Figure 4: Growth in .com registrations from 1992 to Q2 2026. Sources: Wikipedia (Domain name, 1992 and December 2014 figures) and Verisign DNIB, Q2 2026.
Three decades of new TLD launches, from the first expansion round in 2001 through the New gTLD Program starting in 2012, have not dented .com’s position as the default choice for most registrants building a global or English-language audience site.
Which new gTLDs are gaining registrations fastest?
New generic TLDs grew 34.0% year over year to 52.9 million registrations in Q2 2026, the fastest growth rate of any TLD category tracked by Verisign. Within that category, .xyz and .top rank as the two largest individual new gTLDs by registered domain count, followed by .shop, .online, and .store.
Warning
Third-party TLD trackers like ntldstats.com report individual new-gTLD registration counts that are not registry-audited the way Verisign’s DNIB is, and the tracker itself flagged data-currency issues as of its July 2026 snapshot. Treat the ranking order below as broadly directional rather than a precise, audited count, and rely on Verisign’s category-level total (52.9 million new gTLD registrations) as the more trustworthy aggregate figure.
| Rank | New gTLD | Approx. share of new-gTLD segment |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | .xyz | 13.9% |
| 2 | .top | 12.6% |
| 3 | .shop | 8.6% |
| 4 | .online | 7.1% |
| 5 | .store | 4.3% |
Table 2: Largest individual new gTLDs by approximate share of the new-gTLD segment. Source: ntldstats.com tracker, accessed July 2026, directional only per the caveat above.
Even the largest single new gTLD, .xyz, remains a small fraction of .com’s 166.6 million registrations, which is why new gTLDs show up more clearly in year-over-year growth rates than in absolute usage share rankings.
How did the internet get more than 1,200 new gTLDs?
ICANN opened its New gTLD Program to unlimited applications in 2012, after its board voted in June 2011 to end most restrictions on new generic top-level domains when only 22 gTLDs existed. The program received 1,930 applications by its June 2012 “Reveal Day,” and by March 2018 the total number of gTLDs exceeded 1,200.
Figure 5: Key milestones in the expansion of generic top-level domains. Source: Wikipedia, Generic top-level domain, citing ICANN program records.
This expansion is why the “how many TLDs exist” question no longer has a simple answer. The count keeps climbing as ICANN opens new application rounds, even though most of the resulting namespace still sits far behind .com in actual usage.
Which country-code TLDs are the largest?
Country-code TLDs 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 United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and Russia hold the largest individual ccTLD bases, and the top ten ccTLDs together account for more than five-eighths of all registered ccTLD domains, per a Wikipedia citation of registry-level data.
An earlier Verisign count put the ccTLD total at roughly 153 million as of March 2022, meaning the category’s absolute size has slipped slightly even as the overall domain namespace grew, likely reflecting churn among free and low-cost ccTLD registrations that lapsed at renewal rather than a broad decline in national domain adoption.
How do you choose the right TLD for a new website?
Most registrants still default to .com for global or English-speaking audiences, a ccTLD for a single-country audience, and a new gTLD when the extension itself reinforces the brand, such as .shop for a storefront or .app for software. Whichever TLD a site lands on, the underlying legal documentation is a separate decision entirely: a registrar’s terms govern the name itself, not what happens on the website built under it. Every live site, regardless of extension, still needs its own terms and conditions document covering acceptable use, liability limits, and dispute terms.
Full list: top 20 TLDs ranked by website usage share
| Rank | TLD | Category | Website share (Jul 2026) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | .com | gTLD | 43.6% |
| 2 | .org | gTLD | 4.0% |
| 3 | .de | ccTLD | 3.9% |
| 4 | .br | ccTLD | 3.1% |
| 5 | .ru | ccTLD | 2.8% |
| 6 | .uk | ccTLD | 2.4% |
| 7 | .net | gTLD | 2.2% |
| 8 | .jp | ccTLD | 2.0% |
| 9 | .it | ccTLD | 1.9% |
| 10 | .fr | ccTLD | 1.9% |
| 11 | .nl | ccTLD | 1.6% |
| 12 | .pl | ccTLD | 1.6% |
| 13 | .in | ccTLD | 1.4% |
| 14 | .au | ccTLD | 1.4% |
| 15 | .ca | ccTLD | 1.0% |
| 16 | .cz | ccTLD | 0.9% |
| 17 | .es | ccTLD | 0.8% |
| 18 | .ch | ccTLD | 0.7% |
| 19 | .be | ccTLD | 0.7% |
| 20 | .co | gTLD | 0.6% |
Table 3: The 20 most-used top-level domains, ranked by share of live websites. Source: W3Techs, Usage Statistics of Top Level Domains, July 2026.
Nineteen of the top 20 spots outside .com are held by ccTLDs and a handful of legacy gTLDs. Not one new gTLD from the post-2012 expansion cracks the top 20 by website usage share, even though several individually hold millions of registrations.
The Bottom Line
The headline number is simple: .com powers 43.6% of the world’s live websites, more than the next 19 ranked TLDs combined, and that gap has held steady even after ICANN pushed the total gTLD count past 1,200. Beneath that figure sits a namespace of 401.6 million registered domains, split roughly 45% legacy .com/.net, 37% country-code domains, and 18% newer gTLDs, with the newer tier growing fastest in percentage terms but still trailing far behind in absolute usage. If you are registering a new domain, the TLD choice affects discoverability, renewal cost, and audience expectations, but it carries no legal weight on its own. Every site still needs its own terms and conditions, independent of which extension sits after the dot. For the platforms most of these domains actually run on, see the website builder market share data and how that maps to small business website adoption. For a deeper look at total registration growth, see how many domains are registered worldwide.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which TLD do the most websites use? .com, by a wide margin. It is used by 43.6% of the world’s live websites as of July 2026, according to W3Techs’ crawl-based survey, more than the next 19 ranked TLDs combined (34.9%). The runner-up, .org, sits at just 4.0%.
How many domains are registered under country-code TLDs? Country-code TLDs (ccTLDs) held 148.6 million registrations at the end of Q2 2026, about 37.0% of all registered domains worldwide, according to Verisign’s Domain Name Industry Brief. China, Tokelau, Germany, the UK, the Netherlands, and Russia hold the largest individual ccTLD bases.
What is the difference between a gTLD and a ccTLD? A generic TLD (gTLD) like .com, .org, or .shop is not tied to any country and is overseen by ICANN through a registry operator; a country-code TLD (ccTLD) like .de or .uk is assigned to a specific country or territory and run by that country’s own registry. As of Q2 2026, gTLDs (all types combined) hold about 253.0 million registrations and ccTLDs hold 148.6 million, per Verisign.
Are new gTLDs like .xyz or .shop actually popular? They are the fastest-growing TLD category by percentage, up 34.0% year over year to 52.9 million registrations in Q2 2026 per Verisign, though still a much smaller base than .com. Within that category, ntldstats.com’s tracker lists .xyz and .top as the two largest individual new gTLDs by registration count.
Sources and References
- W3Techs. (2026). “Usage Statistics of Top Level Domains.” Live, continuously updated crawl-based survey; figures cited reflect the July 2026 snapshot.
- 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.
- ntldstats.com. New gTLD registration tracker, individual TLD rankings, accessed July 2026.
- Wikipedia. “Domain name.” Historical .com registration figures for 1992 and December 2014.
- Wikipedia. “Country code top-level domain.” Largest ccTLDs by name and March 2022 registration total.
- Wikipedia. “Generic top-level domain.” ICANN New gTLD Program history and milestone counts.
Note: All figures verified as of July 2026. Domain registration counts are refreshed quarterly by Verisign and website usage share is refreshed continuously by W3Techs, so headline figures on this page are revisited at least twice a year.
