Afnic, the French association in charge of the .fr domain and several other Internet Top Level Domains, has published the 2024 edition of its annual analysis “The Global Domain Name Market,” Here is a summary of the overarching trends and key figures.

Trends: 2024 was marked by persistent sluggishness in the long-standing, or Legacy, TLDs such as .COM. This slump was offset by the momentum of nTLDs (new Top-Level Domains), which acted as the driving force behind the market in 2024. ccTLDs (country code Top-Level Domains) also continued to grow, but at a slower rate and with contrasting regional dynamics. The context also highlights widespread fee increases. The market concentration process continued in 2024, but not as strongly as before.

Key figures: At year-end 2024, the global domain name market represented some 372 million domain names. In other words, a +1.5% increase, below last year’s level (+3.3%).

“Legacy TLDs” shrinking with a loss of 3.1 million names: In 2024, Legacy TLDs, long-standing domains such as .NET, .ORG, lost 3.1 million domain names in total, i.e. a -2% fall in their stock. However, situations are highly disparate:

• .COM lost 3.5 million domain names. .COM recorded its worst year yet with a loss of 3.5 million domain names, i.e. 2% of its stock. Its retention rate—an indicator of a domain’s ability to retain the loyalty of its holders—fell to 76.4%, a historic low, and a likely consequence of the successive fee increases.
• Other Legacy TLDs grew slightly at +0.6%, boosted by the .ORG domain (+3%, high retention rate of 83.2%) and some highly dynamic “small” yet volatile Legacy TLDs like .ASIA (+12% in stock, low retention rate of 49.7%) and .PRO (+61%, sharply declining retention rate of 58.8%).

nTLDs gained 6 million domain names: Posting growth of +17% and an additional 6 million names, these “new” domains created after 2014 were the strongest contributors to the overall net increase, their variation corresponding to almost the entire global net balance recorded in 2024, variations in other segments being offset against each other.

brand TLDs, registered by major brand names such as .sncf or .leclerc in France, gained +9% in stock with create operations up +17%

The growth of .brand TLDs could accelerate in the future with the opening of the second ICANN round scheduled for 2026, which will allow new businesses to apply for their own TLD. .brand TLDS also posted a high retention rate (87%), thus illustrating the loyalty of their holders and their long-term use.

Growth for ccTLDs, corresponding to a territory or country, slowed at +1.9%, compared with +3% in 2023 and +7.1% in 2022: However, this figure does not reflect the reality experienced by most ccTLD registries in 2024 as it is skewed by geographic disparities and the weight of certain major TLDs:

• The most dynamic ccTLDs are located in North America (+5.4%), Asia-Pacific (+4.3%), Latin America (+4.0%) and Africa (+4.0%).
• These regions’ gains in market share came at the expense of Europe, which posted zero growth.
• Yet Europe remains the region where ccTLDs thrive best. Out of 33 ccTLDs with over 1 million names, 17 are in Europe compared with 9 in Asia-Pacific, 3 in Latin America and the Caribbean, 2 in North America, and 2 in Africa.

Download the full study: The Global Domain Name Market in 2024