Verisign has published its quarterly Domain Name Industry Brief at the end of last week, summarizing the domain industry’s performance in 2025. As of December 31, the total number of registered domain names across all generic top-level domains (gTLDs) reached 386.9 million. This marks an increase of 2.2%, or 8.4 million domain names, compared to the third quarter of 2025. Year-over-year growth stood at 6.2%, or 22.7 million domains.
The combined registrations in the .COM and .NET domains, managed by Verisign, totaled 173.5 million, with 161 million attributed to the .COM gTLD. Compared to the third quarter of 2025, Verisign-managed domains grew by 1.6 million registrations (0.9%), while the year-over-year increase from the fourth quarter of 2024 was 4.5 million (2.6%).
The number of registered names in country code top-level domains (ccTLDs) reached 145.6 million, rising by 0.8 million (0.6%) quarter-over-quarter. Compared to the fourth quarter of 2024, growth amounted to 4.8 million (3.4%). According to Verisign, the top five largest ccTLDs include China’s .CN (21 million registrations), Germany’s .DE (17.7 million), the United Kingdom’s .UK (10.2 million), the Russian Federation’s .RU and .РФ (6.8 million combined), and the Netherlands’ .NL (6.1 million).
Among new gTLDs, the .XYZ domain retains its lead. With 8.1 million registrations, it ranks among the top five largest gTLDs (excluding ccTLDs), trailing only .COM, .NET, and .ORG. By year-end, new gTLDs accounted for 47.8 million registered names, reflecting an 11.6% increase (5 million registrations) from the previous quarter. Year-over-year, new gTLDs grew by 11 million registrations (29.9%).
Additionally, Verisign reported its financial results for 2025. Revenue from its domain business totaled $1.66 billion, a 6.4% increase compared to 2024. These figures suggest a recovery from earlier downturns, as Verisign had experienced consecutive quarterly declines in managed domain registrations. The company remains optimistic about the future, anticipating a 1.5% to 3.5% growth in its total managed domain names for 2026. It also announced a 5.2% increase in quarterly shareholder dividends.
