Namecheap’s Domain Insights & Trends Report

As the second-largest retail seller of domains, Namecheap is lucky to have a huge amount of data on top level domain (TLD) trends—which are most popular, how they are changing, and what that means for the future of registration.
Let’s take a look at our domain insights for 2018 and see how different TLDs are faring this year.

Top Ten Most Popular Domains of H1 2018

*Using Namecheap data from January  2018 – June 2018
Despite its relatively recent release, .app has stormed onto our Top Ten, as indicated by Namecheap’s total number of registrations this year.
The travel industry is already embracing travel outside of this planet, with the rise in popularity of .space.
More familiar faces comprise the rest of the list, helped by their versatility as well as being stalwarts of the Internet. We still see .net, .info, and .org performing incredibly well, with .com untouchable at the top of the list.

1. .com
2. .info
3. .club
4. .org
5. .site
6. .net
7. .online
8. .website
9. .space
10. .app

Top Ten Country Code TLDs

*Using Namecheap data from January 2018 – June 2018
The top country code TLD is, perhaps unsurprisingly, .us. With a huge amount of businesses and individuals wanting the association with the United States in their TLD, it’s always at the top of the list.
The versatility of .co, and its similarity to .com, sees it coming second on the list. Similarly, other TLDs, like .io extention or .ai domain names, benefit from their ability to be applied to the tech industry.

1. 1. .us
   2. .co
   3. .pw
   4. .io
   5. .me
   6. .co.uk
   7. .ca
   8. .de
   9. .cc
   10. .ai

Top 5 New TLDs

*Using proprietary Namecheap data from January 2015 – June 2018

1. 1. .online
   2. .site
   3. .tech
   4. .top
   5. .space

At the top of the list is .online, which also appeared at number 10 on the overall most popular list for the past decade. The all-encompassing flexibility of this TLD, as well as its relevance to the digital age, are likely reasons why it has performed so well.
It isn’t surprising to see .space featured in the top ten new TLDs. With over 468 .space websites in the top 1 million within two years, this extension has been gaining more and more momentum. It speaks to a wide audience, from community spaces and art galleries to workspaces, and of course, space enthusiasts.

The Changing Face of Domain Registration

Virtually everyone could guess .com is the most popular TLD in the world. However, we’ve seen big changes in the dominance of .com in recent years.
Owning a domain name that gives customers a sense of security and trust is important. For many years, .com was the best way to accomplish this, but as our data shows, that no longer holds true as more non-.com TLDs have been registered with Namecheap over the last two years than ever before.
Team members at Namecheap are firm believers that all top level domains have value, and have long been proponents of giving non-.com choices the consideration they deserve for customers selecting a domain name.

Read Our Full Report

Download the full report to get a lot more fascinating insights into this unique, and ever-changing world of TLDs. This includes top industry-specific TLDs and a detailed examination of the last decade of TLD registration.
All information presented in this blog and our report was the best available to Namecheap at the time of publication and was correct at that time.
Additionally, references to past statistics may incorporate corrections to information previously reported by Namecheap, based on new information learned since these publications.