Internet Grows To 326.4 Million Domain Names In The First Quarter Of 2016

VeriSign, a global leader in domain names and internet security, today announced that approximately 12 million domain names were added to the internet in the first quarter of 2016, bringing the total number of registered domain names to approximately 326.4 million worldwide across all top-level domains (TLDs) as of March 31, 2016, according to the latest Domain Name Industry Brief.

The increase of approximately 12 million domain names globally equates to a growth rate of 3.8 percent over the fourth quarter of 2015. Worldwide registrations have grown by 32.4 million, or 11 percent, year over year.

The .com and .net TLDs experienced aggregate growth in the first quarter of 2016, reaching a combined total of approximately 142.5 million .com and .net domain names in the domain name base. This represents a 7.1 percent increase year over year. As of March 31, 2016, the domain name base of .com equaled 126.6 million names, while .net equaled 15.9 million names.

In the first quarter, Verisign processed 10 million new domain name registrations for .com and .net, as compared to 8.7 million domain names for the same period in 2015.

During the first quarter of 2016, Verisign’s average daily Domain Name System (DNS) query load was approximately 124 billion queries per day across all TLDs operated by Verisign, with a peak of nearly 189 billion. Quarter over quarter, the daily average query load increased 0.5 percent and the peak decreased by 2.7 percent. Year over year, the daily average query load increased by 3.5 percent, and the peak increased by 14.2 percent.

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 first quarter 2016 Domain Name Industry Brief, as well as previous reports, can be obtained at Verisign.com/DNIB.