2018 ended with 348.7 million domains across all top-level domains (TLDs)

VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ: VRSN) today announced that the fourth quarter of 2018 closed with approximately 348.7 million domain name registrations across all top-level domains (TLDs), an increase of approximately 6.3 million domain name registrations, or 1.8 percent, compared to the third quarter of 2018. Domain name registrations have grown by approximately 16.3 million, or 4.9 percent, year over year.

The .com and .net TLDs had a combined total of approximately 153.0 million domain name registrations in the domain name base³ at the end of the fourth quarter of 2018, an increase of approximately 1.3 million domain name registrations, or 0.8 percent, compared to the third quarter of 2018. The .com and .net TLDs had a combined increase of approximately 6.6 million domain name registrations, or 4.5 percent, year over year. As of Dec. 31, 2018, the .com domain name base totaled approximately 139.0 million domain name registrations, while the .net domain name base totaled approximately 14.0 million domain name registrations.

New .com and .net domain name registrations totaled approximately 9.5 million at the end of the fourth quarter of 2018, compared to 9.0 million domain name registrations at the end of the fourth quarter of 2017.

TOP 10 TRENDING KEYWORDS IN .COM AND .NET IN Q4 2018

This chart represents the top 10 trending keywords registered in English in .com and .net domain name registrations for the fourth quarter of 2018.
Verisign publishes a monthly blog post highlighting domain name registration keyword trends that reflects trends from the previous month. Using the same methodology, this list reflects the keywords with the highest percentage of registration growth relative to the preceding quarter.
This method is intended to highlight the new and changing keywords seen in .com and .net domain name registrations. By evaluating the keywords with the largest percentage shift, the top 10 that have seen a significant shift in end-user interest quarter over quarter can be identified.

You can find the full report here.