DATA ANALYSIS — 23 FEBRUARY 2026

COM Zone Hits 160 Million

A deep dive into the world's largest domain zone — registration trends, namespace saturation, registrar dynamics, nameserver infrastructure, and four new data insights derived from creation_date, expiration_date, last_update_date, and nameservers.

Active Domains
160.0M
registered .com
Avg Name Length
12.8
characters
Registrars
2,895
IANA-accredited
Seized Domains
1,325
law enforcement
Numeric-Only
892K
all-digit names
Hyphenated
15.8M
contain hyphen

Contents

  1. 01Annual Registration Trends
  2. 02Domain Age & Retention
  3. 03Domain Name Length & Saturation
  4. 04Registrar Market Share
  5. 05Nameserver Infrastructure
  6. 06Seized Domains
  1. 07Oldest Active .COM Domains
  2. 08Expiration Forecast NEW
  3. 09DNS Update Recency NEW
  4. 10Registrar Portfolio Vintage NEW
  5. 11Registration Day-of-Week Patterns NEW

.COM Zone File

Complete list of registered .com domains

  • 161,200,511 domains
  • Last update: 03 Apr 2026
  • File size: 638 MB (.gz compressed)
Download View zone details
01 — Annual Trends

Annual Registration Trends

How has COM zone growth evolved year over year? The chart shows currently active domains grouped by creation year — revealing dot-com boom cycles, corrections, and steady-state growth.

Active Domains by Creation Year
Monthly Registration Volume (Last 5 Years)
Seasonality — Registrations by Month of Year
💡 Insight: The 2025 peak (37.5M registrations) likely reflects (1) a lagging expiry effect — most names registered in 2025 haven’t had a chance to drop yet, and a large share won’t renew after the first year—and (2) the vibecoding boom, which lowered the cost of starting new projects and encouraged more ‘just launch it’ domain buying
02 — Age & Retention

Domain Age & Retention

How old are today's active COM domains? And how long are registrations maintained before they lapse? These distributions reveal the "staying power" of domain investments and the share of speculative vs. long-held assets.

Age Distribution of Active Domains
Registration Lifespan (Expire − Create)
💡 Insight: We observe a clear inflection point around the three-year mark in domain lifecycles. In practice, speculative registrations tend to churn within the first 1–2 years (often dropping at the first or second renewal). When a domain is renewed into year three and beyond, it’s far more likely to be a long-term hold — either tied to an active project, a durable brand, or a portfolio strategy rather than a short-lived experiment.
03 — Name Length

Domain Name Length

Short domain names are the prime real estate of the internet. How saturated is the namespace at each length? Saturation bars compare registered domains against the theoretical maximum (a–z + 0–9 combinations).

Distribution by Name Length (characters, 1–40)
Namespace Saturation — 1 to 6 Characters
💡 Insight: 1-3-character domains are 100% saturated — every combination is taken. 4-char names are 60.7% gone. New registrants increasingly compete in the 8–15 character range where availability still exists.
04 — Registrar Market Share

Registrar Market Share

The COM zone is served by hundreds of ICANN-accredited registrars, but market concentration is striking — the top five alone control nearly half of all .com domains.

Top 15 Registrars by Domain Count
Market Concentration
Top 20 Registrars — Detailed View
#RegistrarIANA IDDomainsShareBar
💡 Insight: The top 5 registrars control 48.7% (~78M domains). GoDaddy alone holds nearly 1-in-3 .com domains globally — giving it outsized influence over domain pricing and renewal policies industry-wide.
05 — Nameserver Infrastructure

Name Server Infrastructure

Name servers reveal what's actually happening behind a domain — whether it's actively hosted, parked for resale, seized by law enforcement, or simply abandoned. This breakdown classifies all 160M+ domains by DNS infrastructure.

Domain Classification by NS Type
NS Records Per Domain
Top 15 DNS Providers by Domains Served
Top 20 Name Server Providers
#Provider (NS Root Domain)Domains ServedShareBar
06 — Law Enforcement

Seized Domains

Domains pointing to seizedservers.com name servers have been taken over by law enforcement — typically the FBI or DOJ. Seizures target fraud, darknet markets, illegal gambling, IP theft, and related criminal activity.

Seized Domain Count
1,325
domains under law enforcement control
0.0008% of all .com domains
Examples of Seized Domains (Illustrative)
lafoauto.com newport-intl.com cialisonlinecl.com trustpharmacy365.com glockshooter.com mygolfwholesale.com adultwoman.com travelplusac.com manhattan-escort.com glock39.com glocksucks.com south-africarx.com pfizerksa.com msdupdate.com wholesalejerseyscheapnfl.com googlenfljerseys.com amzfootball.com bookscatalog.com beautyandhealthprods.com nohasslewhilebuyingmd.com

Names above are representative examples by category. Full seized-domain lists are available via AllZonefiles.io data downloads.

07 — Digital Fossils

Oldest Active .COM Domains

These are the longest-surviving .com domains still active today — digital fossils from the earliest days of the commercial internet, many predating the World Wide Web itself.

Top 50 Oldest Active .com Domains
#DomainCreatedAge (years)
08 — Expiration Forecast NEW

Expiration Forecast — Next 18 Months

Derived from expiration_date. Shows how many .com domains are scheduled to expire each month through mid-2027. High-expiry months signal renewal pressure for registrars and drop-catching opportunities for domain investors.

Domains Expiring by Month (Mar 2026 – Aug 2027)
💡 Insight: Expiry volumes peak in Q1 each year (Jan–Mar), reflecting registrations made during year-end surges. Each expiring-domain cohort represents a pool of potentially available names — domain investors actively monitor these windows for premium domain drops.
09 — DNS Update Activity NEW

DNS Update Recency

Derived from last_update_date. How recently were zone records last modified? This reveals the ratio of live, actively-managed domains versus stale or abandoned registrations — an important signal for threat intelligence and domain hygiene analysis.

Domains by Time Since Last DNS Update
Active vs. Stale Split
⚠️ Insight: An estimated 4.3% of .com domains have not had DNS records updated in over 2 years — suggesting abandonment, passive parking, or pure speculation. These "zombie" domains can become vectors for domain hijacking or phishing if renewals lapse.
10 — Registrar Vintage NEW

Registrar Portfolio Vintage

Derived from creation_date + iana_registrar_id. Shows the average age of domains held by each top registrar — revealing whether their portfolio skews toward long-held established domains or freshly registered names.

Average Domain Age by Top Registrar (years)
💡 Insight: Four registrars like Network Solutions, eNom, NameBright and Bluehost carry portfolios averaging 10-12 years old, reflecting their early-internet customer bases. Newer entrants like Amazon average under 6 years, attracting fresh domain speculators and startups.
11 — Behavioral Patterns NEW

Registration Day-of-Week Patterns

Derived from creation_date. When do people actually register domains? The day-of-week distribution reveals behavioral patterns — business-driven weekday registrations versus impulse weekend purchases.

Total Domains Registered by Day of Week
Key Findings
  • Tuesday is the peak day — businesses start the work week with new digital projects and ideas.
  • Friday sees the fewest weekday registrations — ~8% below Tuesday — as attention shifts away from business.
  • Weekend registrations (Sat+Sun) still account for 20% of all signups, driven by hobbyist and side-project activity.
  • The weekday-to-weekend ratio suggests roughly 80% business / 20% personal registrations overall.

.COM Zone File

Complete list of registered .com domains

  • 161,200,511 domains
  • Last update: 03 Apr 2026
  • File size: 638 MB (.gz compressed)
Download View zone details