We provide a service that allows users to backorder expired domains for various popular top level domains (TLDs). If multiple users order the same domain, it goes to a public auction.
As a result, we are in a unique position to calculate interesting statistics about expired domain registrations and expired domain auctions.
On this page, we will share the data we've collected about those registrations and auctions. The page is updated regularly so be sure to check back for the most up-to-date statistics.
Let's begin with interesting observations about expired domain registrations.
We started our service in 2014, and we have registered more than 20,000 expired domains on behalf of our users.
Here are the registration counts for the past 3 years:
Registrations increased by 2% from 2022 to 2023, and they decreased by 51% from 2021 to 2023. If we drill down into the data for 2023, here are the registration counts for each TLD:
Expired .io domains were registered the most, followed by .to, .gg, .co, .me, and .vc domains.
For comparison purposes, here are the "winners" (i.e., TLDs with more registrations from one year to the next) and "losers" (i.e., TLDs with fewer registrations from one year to the next) for 2022 and 2023:
Expired .to registrations increased the most (on a percentage basis), and expired .as registrations decreased the most (on a percentage basis).
As previously mentioned, if multiple users order an expired domain (and we successfully register it), our service creates a public auction. Now, let's turn our attention to interesting observations about those auctions.
Since 2014, we have completed more than 7,000 auctions.
Here are the auction counts for the past 3 years:
The number of auctions increased by 76% from 2022 to 2023, and they decreased by 46% from 2021 to 2023. Focusing on 2023, here are the auction counts for the various TLDs:
Expired .to domains were auctioned the most, followed by .io, .co, .gg, .me, and .vc domains.
Diving a little deeper, here are the "winners" (i.e., TLDs with more auctions from one year to the next) and "losers" (i.e., TLDs with fewer auctions from one year to the next) for 2022 and 2023:
The number of .to auctions increased the most (on a percentage basis), and the number of .as auctions decreased the most (on a percentage basis).
Up to this point, we've focused on the raw auction counts, which provide insight into the relative popularity of the TLDs.
Now we're going to investigate the average auction price for each TLD. These average prices help identify the intrinsic value of the various TLDs.
Here are the average auction prices (calculated using geometric mean) for the TLDs in 2023:
The .us auctions had the highest average price, followed by .co, .gg, .vc, .ag, and .mn auctions.
Another way to approximate the value of each TLD is to investigate the highest auction prices for those TLDs. Here are the highest auction prices for each TLD in 2023:
In 2023, the .to auctions had the highest price, followed by .co, .sh, .gg, .vc, and .io auctions. Here are the top 10 auctions with the highest prices from 2023:
| Date | Domain Name | Price |
|---|---|---|
| 2023-04-27 | upvideo.to | $9,396.00 |
| 2023-06-11 | bitfun.co | $6,050.00 |
| 2023-10-26 | room.co | $5,700.00 |
| 2023-03-30 | ez.to | $5,650.00 |
| 2023-11-30 | ethos.co | $5,300.00 |
| 2023-02-23 | 5.to | $5,000.00 |
| 2023-07-25 | chat.sh | $4,950.00 |
| 2023-07-13 | meme.gg | $4,550.00 |
| 2023-01-27 | generative.gg | $3,819.00 |
| 2023-05-04 | chain.to | $3,550.00 |
All of this information helps quantify the value of expired domains on our platform. Next, we're going to investigate what happens to domains after they've been purchased on our platform.
Domain flipping is the act of purchasing domain names and then selling them for a profit.
To identify domain flips that originated from our service, we used NameBio to collect publicly available sales data about every expired domain name we've registered.
Based on this data, 1566 domains have been purchased from our service and then flipped (i.e., sold on another platform that publicly shares sales data). The real number of domain flips originating from our service is significantly higher, but most of those flips are done privately (and we don't have access to that data).
For the public domain flips, the average flip profit was $686.63, and the average hold time (i.e., the time between the initial purchase and the actual flip) was 1113 days. The largest profit for a single domain was $169,550.00, and the shortest hold time was 3 days.
The combined return on investment (ROI) for all of those public domain flips was 378%, and the highest ROI for a single domain was 37,678%.
Here are the public flip counts for the past 3 years:
Domain flips increased by 0% from 2022 to 2023, and they increased by 0% from 2021 to 2023. If we dig into the data for 2023, here are the flip counts for each TLD:
0% of the flips were expired . domains. Here are the top 10 flips with the highest ROI in 2023:
| Domain Name | Purchase Price | Flip Amount | Profit | ROI | Hold Time |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| $0.00 | $0.00 | $0.00 | 0% | days |