ICANN has published its draft budget for fiscal year 2027 along with updated projections for the current fiscal year. In the United States, where ICANN is headquartered, the fiscal year begins on July 1. The newly released figures suggest that ICANN’s economists – and, by extension, the broader domain name industry – have grounds for optimism.
ICANN derives revenue from royalties on all registration transactions, including domain name registrations, renewals, and transfers. Whereas the organization had previously forecast 179.8 million transactions in legacy domain zones for the current fiscal year, this estimate has now been revised upward by 4.3 percent to 187.5 million. Growth is also anticipated in new generic top-level domains, with transactions expected to rise by 30.2 percent to 43.1 million, compared to the 33.1 million projected in May 2025. As a result, ICANN now expects to receive $161.4 million in revenue from these transactions, compared with the previously budgeted $149.8 million.
This positive revision reflects unexpected and sustained growth in registrations across most domain extensions, a trend that began in the early second half of 2025 and continues to this day. In light of these developments, ICANN does not plan to raise fees for registries and registrars next year: a move widely regarded as good news for the industry. In addition, ICANN now anticipates that by the end of fiscal year 2026 (June 30), the number of accredited registries and registrars will exceed earlier expectations. Specifically, there are likely to be approximately 20 more registries and nearly 400 more registrars than previously projected, reversing earlier assumptions that these numbers would decline.
Looking ahead to the next fiscal year, ICANN forecasts 191.9 million transactions in legacy domain zones and 44.4 million in new domains, representing year-on-year growth of 2 percent and 3 percent, respectively. As noted by Domain Incite, these projections do not account for the potential impact of the second phase of the new gTLD program, which is scheduled to launch in the second quarter of this year.
