Top gTLDs by active domains.

Registration count is a database figure: every name the registry has on record, including names that never resolve, were registered but never configured, or are sitting in test accounts. Active domains count is what is actually reachable on the public internet today. The gap between the two is often 15–30 percent on promotional gTLDs. We rank by active because it reflects real presence on the internet, not database entries. This distinction is the single most common error in news coverage of gTLD market share.

Several mechanisms, in rough order of frequency: (1) concentrated expiration batches, where a past promotional wave (for example a US$0.99 first-year promo) hits the one-year mark and a large share does not renew; (2) registrar cleanups, where abuse blocklists (Spamhaus, SURBL, etc.) flag a TLD and registrars bulk-delete flagged names; (3) a registrar exiting or transferring sales of a particular gTLD; (4) a promo price returning to the regular renewal price, which suppresses further new registrations; (5) zone file publication delays, where a day looks lower only because the source is late. A single-day drop is usually noise; a multi-week decline is a real market signal.

Three structural reasons, visible in the Top 10 gTLDs share shown above: path dependence (existing email, links, and bookmarks are tied to .com names, so established businesses do not migrate), trust signal (consumers and search engines treat .com as the default, and anything else as an explanation that needs making), and defensive registration (every large brand registers its .com regardless of which TLD it actually uses). The result is that .com alone holds a larger active share than the next dozen gTLDs combined, and this concentration has been remarkably stable year over year.

Not reliably. Active domain counts are daily snapshots, not daily deltas, so summing them across days double-counts the same domains. The correct approach is to pick one snapshot per week or per month and compare the snapshots. Additional caveats: the set of tracked gTLDs can change when new gTLDs launch or delegation status shifts, and the upstream data source occasionally republishes a day with corrections. For ready-made week-over-week and month-over-month views that handle these edge cases, see DomainKits gTLD Trends.