Verisign released their Q1 2018 Domain Name Industry Brief
Of note was the decrease in new gtld registrations, they actually showed a decrease of 400,000 names.
Some statistics from the report:
The first quarter of 2018 closed with approximately 333.8 million domain name registrations across all top-level domains (TLDs), an increase of approximately 1.4 million domain name registrations, or 0.4 percent, compared to the fourth quarter of 2017.1,2 Domain name registrations have grown by approximately 3.2 million, or 1.0 percent, year over year.1,2
Total country-code TLD (ccTLD) domain name registrations were approximately 146.3 million at the end of the first quarter of 2018, with an increase of approximately 0.2 million domain name registrations, or 0.1 percent, compared to the fourth quarter of 2017.1,2 ccTLDs increased by approximately 3.2 million domain name registrations, or 2.2 percent, year over year.1,2
The .com and .net TLDs had a combined total of approximately 148.3 million domain name registrations in the domain name base3 at the end of the first quarter of 2018, with an increase of approximately 1.9 million domain name registrations, or 1.3 percent, compared to the fourth quarter of 2017. The .com and .net TLDs had a combined increase of approximately 4.6 million domain name registrations, or 3.2 percent, year over year. As of Mar. 31, 2018, the .com domain name base totaled approximately 133.9 million domain name registrations, while the .net domain name base totaled approximately 14.4 million domain name registrations.
New .com and .net domain name registrations totaled approximately 9.6 million at the end of the first quarter of 2018, compared to 9.5 million domain name registrations for the first quarter of 2017.
Total new gTLD (ngTLD) domain name registrations were approximately 20.2 million at the end of the first quarter of 2018, with a decrease of 0.4 million domain name registrations, or 2.0 percent, compared to the fourth quarter of 2017. ngTLDs decreased by approximately 5.3 million domain name registrations, or 20.7 percent, year over year.
Read the full report here