As outlined in Verisign’s Domain Name Industry Brief, the global domain name registration count witnessed a slight decline during the third quarter. The total number dipped to 362.3 million, marking a decrease of 0.1 million compared to the previous quarter. This downturn was primarily fueled by a decline of 1.1 million registrations in the .com and .net domains, a trend that has persisted for several quarters now.
Specifically, the .com registration count fell from 157.6 million to 156.7 million, while .net registrations dropped to 12.9 million. However, gTLDs (excluding .com and .net) registered prior to 2012 saw an increase of 100,000, reaching a total of 17.3 million. Similarly, ccTLDs also exhibited growth, reaching 140.1 million by the end of the quarter. New gTLDs added 800,000 registrations, bringing their total to 35.4 million.