Domain Aftermarket Statistics 2026: The $244M Year
Domain market statistics have a data problem: the biggest deals close under NDA, most marketplace sales are never reported anywhere, and the one public database everyone cites is a sample, not a census. This page collects the aftermarket numbers that are actually sourced and current as of late 2026, states where each comes from, and flags what each one can and cannot support. Figures will be refreshed as new quarters land.
The headline numbers
| Metric | Figure | Period |
|---|---|---|
| Recorded domain sales (NameBio) | ~190,300 transactions | 2025 |
| Recorded dollar volume | $244 million+, up 31.9% YoY | 2025 |
| First-half volume | $122 million, up 42.7% YoY | H1 2025 |
| ccTLD sales growth | +61% by dollar volume | 2025 |
| Estimated tracker coverage of retail | 5-10% of activity | Ongoing estimate |
| Registered domains worldwide (Verisign DNIB) | 386.9 million, up 6.2% YoY | Q4 2025 |
| .com registrations | 161.0 million | Q4 2025 |
| ccTLD registrations | 145.6 million | Q4 2025 |
| New gTLD registrations | 47.8 million, up 29.9% YoY | Q4 2025 |
| .ai registrations | ~859,000 | August 2025 |
| .ai share of top-100 public sales | ~29% | 2025 |
| Largest reported sale ever | AI.com, ~$70 million | April 2025 |
| Portfolio sell-through consensus | ~1-2% per year | Industry estimate |
What grew fastest in 2025?
Two stories drove the 31.9% jump. The first is ccTLDs, up 61% in recorded dollar volume, and inside that number the .ai surge did disproportionate work: roughly 859,000 registrations by August 2025 (from about 40,000 in 2020), around 2,008 new registrations per day as of January 2026, an estimated US$85 million in 2025 revenue for Anguilla, and single months grossing $600,000+ in official expired .ai auction sales. The full curve is charted in the .ai boom in numbers. The second story is the top of the market: 2024-2026 delivered the AI-era record purchases, with Chat.com at $15.5 million, Icon.com at $12 million and AI.com reportedly around $70 million; the whole record tier is ranked in the 25 most expensive domains ever sold. Meanwhile the registration base grew steadily rather than explosively: 386.9 million total names, with new gTLDs the fastest-expanding slice at +29.9%.
The supply side in numbers
Aftermarket inventory does not appear from nowhere; it is manufactured daily by expiry. Depending on definition, roughly 100,000 domains are listed as dropping each day and 200,000+ are deleted outright, while GoDaddy's expiry auctions alone surface 35,000+ newly expiring names every day. At the catching end, DropCatch maintains 1,200+ registrar accreditations to race for deleting names, NameJet and SnapNames sell $69-79 minimum backorders from one shared inventory pool, and park.io charges $99 flat for ccTLD catches, paid only on success. Success is far from guaranteed: even top catching services land an estimated 30-50% of the contested names they chase. The .ai pipeline is the exception that proves the rule: expired .ai names never free-drop, routing instead into official daily auctions at Namecheap, a channel that has grossed $600,000+ in a single month.
Price context: records and the long tail
The record tier reset during the AI cycle. AI.com reportedly sold for around $70 million in April 2025, with confirmed AI-era purchases including Chat.com at $15.5 million (OpenAI, 2024) and Icon.com at $12 million (April 2025), against the pre-AI benchmark of Voice.com at $30 million in 2019. The long tail looks nothing like that: most recorded sales are three and four figures, sell-through consensus sits at 1-2% a year, and passive income from undeveloped names is modest, with parking a domain that has no real type-in traffic typically yielding $3-5 per month. Retail asking prices cluster far above clearing prices too: the same grade of name that changes hands at $200 wholesale routinely lists at $2,000+ retail, and both numbers are real, separated by patience. The distance between headline records and $4 parking checks is where most bad aftermarket decisions get made.
How to read these numbers: the coverage caveat
NameBio logs sales that venues and sellers choose to report, above minimum thresholds, which is why its coverage is estimated at only 5-10% of retail activity. Simple arithmetic, not a measurement: if $244 million is 5-10% of the market, true retail volume lands somewhere between roughly $2.4 and $4.9 billion. Treat that range as an order-of-magnitude sketch. What the tracker is genuinely good for is relative movement (growth rates, TLD mix, price distributions) because its reporting bias stays roughly constant year to year. The other systematic blind spot is the top: brokered mega-deals close under NDA, so record lists are really disclosure lists. Both caveats cut the same direction; every published aftermarket number is a floor, not a ceiling.
What the statistics mean if you are buying or selling
For sellers, the uncomfortable pairing is a market up 31.9% and a sell-through consensus of 1-2% a year: the tide is rising, but any single name still waits years for its buyer, so venue fees and renewal discipline decide whether the wait is profitable. Two venue figures worth memorizing: Afternic distributes listings across 75,000+ reseller storefronts at commissions commonly of 15-25%, while Sedo pairs 10-20% commission with $79 auction minimums and its European strength. Our commissions comparison table covers what each venue takes when the sale lands. For buyers, growth is concentrated where supply is tightest: hot TLDs and category .coms. The supply side, meanwhile, refreshes daily: on the order of 100,000 domains are listed as dropping and 200,000+ are deleted every day, and that expiring pipeline, searchable with research tools like DomCop, is where most of tomorrow's aftermarket inventory comes from before it is repriced at retail.
Frequently asked questions
How big is the domain aftermarket really?
Publicly recorded: about 190,300 sales worth $244 million+ in 2025. Actual retail: unknown, but if the 5-10% coverage estimate holds, somewhere in the low single-digit billions of dollars a year. No one has a precise census, and anyone quoting one number without a caveat is overclaiming.
Is the domain aftermarket growing?
Yes, sharply, as of the latest full-year data: recorded volume rose 31.9% in 2025, with the first half alone up 42.7% year over year. Growth concentrated in ccTLDs (+61%), led by .ai, and in top-end AI-era purchases.
What was the biggest domain sale of the AI era?
AI.com at a reported ~$70 million in April 2025, which would also be the largest domain-only price ever disclosed. Among fully confirmed deals, Chat.com at $15.5 million to OpenAI in 2024 leads the AI cycle.
How many domains change hands per day?
No clean number exists. NameBio's ~190,300 recorded sales for 2025 average out to roughly 520 per day, but that is the reported sliver; with coverage estimated at 5-10%, actual retail transactions plausibly run into the thousands daily, before counting wholesale flips and private deals that no tracker ever sees.
Where do these statistics come from?
Sales figures come from NameBio's database and NamePros' analysis of it; registration-base figures come from Verisign's quarterly Domain Name Industry Brief; .ai figures come from registry-linked reporting collected on Wikipedia and trade press. Each source is linked below.