Assessing the popularity of gTLD is an extremely difficult task. The most obvious way is to count the number of names registered in a particular domain zone. But it is also the most inaccurate. In this case, it is enough to open registration of domain names at bargain prices in order to reach record figures in a short time, but these figures will practically say nothing about the real demand for the domain zone.
A more objective method is to estimate the number of websites operating on domain names in a particular zone. However, there is a serious drawback here too: many sites are limited to a minimum of content, not being updated for months or even years. And it is clear that the word "popularity" in relation to them is also hardly applicable.
The specialists of the Dataprovider.com resource offered their own method. They compiled their own ranking of the popularity of new generic top-level domains, not only by counting the number of sites in domain zones, but also by estimating the amount of traffic these sites receive. Domain Name Wire, reporting this news, notes that the proposed method is perhaps the most objective at the moment. True, there are complaints about it: for example, there may be a question about the quality of traffic. Let's say the domain used for a spam campaign will have impressive traffic, but this can hardly be considered an achievement.
However, Dataprovider.com's assessment of the popularity of the top 20 (by number of registrations) new gTLDs is certainly noteworthy. The first place in this ranking is occupied by the .DEV, managed by Google and addressed primarily to software developers. It is followed by the .CLUB, with 319,000 registered names in the first domain, and more than twice as many in the second, 688,000. However, even more clear confirmation of the idea that the number of registrations has little to do with real popularity is the result of the .XYZ. The domain zone, which leads by the number of registered names among all new domains, did not even make it into the top ten of the Dataprovider.com rating, being content with 12th place.
