RESTON, VA.-- June 09, 2023 -- VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ: VRSN), a global provider of domain name registry services and internet infrastructure, today announced that the first quarter of 2023 closed with 354.0 million domain name registrations across all top-level domains (TLDs), an increase of 3.5 million domain name registrations, or 1.0%, compared to the fourth quarter of 2022.[1,2] Domain name registrations also increased by 3.5 million, or 1.0%, year over year.[1,2]

The .com and .net TLDs had a combined total of 174.8 million domain name registrations in the domain name base[3] at the end of the first quarter of 2023, an increase of 1.0 million domain name registrations, or 0.6%, compared to the fourth quarter of 2022. The .com and .net TLDs had a combined increase of 0.1 million domain name registrations, or 0.1%, year over year. As of March 31, 2023, the .com domain name base totaled 161.6 million domain name registrations, and the .net domain name base totaled 13.2 million domain name registrations.

New .com and .net domain name registrations totaled 10.3 million at the end of the first quarter of 2023, compared to 10.2 million domain name registrations at the end of the first quarter of 2022.

Total country-code TLD (ccTLD) domain name registrations were 135.7 million at the end of the first quarter of 2023, an increase of 2.6 million domain name registrations, or 2.0%, compared to the fourth quarter of 2022.1,2 ccTLDs increased by 2.3 million domain name registrations, or 1.7%, year over year. The top 10 ccTLDs, as of March 31, 2023, were .cn, .de, .uk, .nl, .ru, .br, .au, .fr, .eu, and .it.1,2 This issue of the Domain Name Industry Brief includes a correction to the March 2023 issue, which incorrectly reported the number of domain name registrations in the .eu ccTLD.2 This was the result of a one-time error in the .eu domain name registration data, provided by ZookNIC, which has since been resolved.

Verisign publishes The Domain Name Industry Brief to provide internet users throughout the world with statistical and analytical research and data on the domain name industry. The Domain Name Industry Brief for the first quarter 2023, as well as previous briefs, can be obtained at Verisign.com/DNIB.