Verisign has released the latest edition of its Domain Name Industry Brief (DNIB), one of the most respected reports tracking the state of the domain name industry. The Q2 2025 findings paint a largely positive picture, closing with 371.7 million domain name registrations across all top-level domains (TLDs) – a quarterly increase of 3.3 million (0.9%) from Q1 2025. Year over year, registrations grew by 9.3 million (2.6%). As of June 30, the DNS root zone contained 1,265 registered domains, including internationalized TLDs.
The combined registrations in .COM and .NET, managed by Verisign itself, now total 170.5 million, comprising 157.9 million (.COM) and 12.6 million (.NET). While this reflects a slight year-over-year dip of 0.1 million (0.1%), quarterly growth of 0.7 million (0.4%) signals a positive reversal, especially after consecutive quarters of decline for .COM. Analysts attribute this shift to multiple factors, including targeted marketing programs by Verisign to incentivize registrars and attract new registrants. Renewal rates for .COM have also improved, rising from 72.7% to 75.5%. Additionally, the Chinese market, long cited by Verisign representatives as a key challenge, is finally showing tentative signs of recovery.
Country-code domains (ccTLDs) maintained modest but steady growth, reaching 143.4 million registrations in Q2 – a quarterly increase of 0.5 million (0.4%) and a year-over-year rise of 3.5 million (2.5%). The top three leaders remain .CN (China, 21 million), .DE (Germany, 17.6 million), and .UK (Britain, 10.2 million), followed closely by Russia’s combined ccTLDs at 6.7 million (DNIB takes into account combined statistics for .RU + .РФ).
Meanwhile, new generic TLDs (ngTLDs) saw total registrations hit 39.5 million, up 1.7 million (4.6%) from Q1 2025 and 4.9 million (14.2%) year over year.
