Stats
New gTLD · delegated 2017-02 · ZA Central Registry NPC trading as Registry.Africa

.africa TLD stats

.africa held 55,550 names in May 2025, as ZA Central Registry NPC trading as Registry.Africa reported to ICANN; its zone file on 24 Oct 2026 carried 61,965. 52 registrars held names in it that month; the largest, Tucows Domains Inc., held 18.6%. .africa fell by about half in its seventh year, from 110,740 to 49,471.

55,550
names, May 2025, reported to ICANN
61,965
in the zone file, 24 Oct 2026
52
registrars holding names

Names since general availability, July 2017

Names on the books at the end of each year since general availability, from the registry's monthly reports to ICANN, through May 2026. The marked point is the zone count of 24 Oct 2026, a different count taken on one night.

Year by year since launch, as the registry reported it

In its first year, to June 2018, 38 registrars held 10 or more .africa names and the largest held 88%; by its eighth, to June 2025, 44 did and the largest held 19%.

  1. 1 · to Jun 2018145,3473888%
  2. 2 · to Jun 2019149,9844185%
  3. 3 · to Jun 2020154,2774383%
  4. 4 · to Jun 2021158,9734381%
  5. 5 · to Jun 2022160,5194481%
  6. 6 · to Jun 2023110,7404568%
  7. 7 · to Jun 202449,4714520%
  8. 8 · to Jun 202555,6034419%

Year 1 starts at general availability and each year is labelled by the month it ends. Registrars with 10 or more names and the largest registrar's share are read at that month. A year with fewer than nine monthly reports is left blank.

Who sells it

May 2025

Tucows Domains Inc. held 18.6% of .africa names in May 2025; the largest five together held 65.3%.

Shares add to 100%. From the registry's report for May 2025.

2026 strings our model compared with it

When we scored the 2026 round, our model listed .africa among the closest 2012-round TLDs for 2 applied-for strings. No applicant made these comparisons; strong and moderate are how close it judged each match.

Cross-checkThe registry reported 55,550 names for May 2025; the zone on Oct 24, 2026 held 6,415 more. The two are counted differently and 17 months apart: a registered name that is not delegated never appears in the zone, and a zone file is read on one night, a report at a month's end.

last night, in detail

Oct 24, 2026
What moved · on Oct 24, 2026
entered the zone
+82
left it
−57
changed nameservers
36
Net
+25
Oct 7, 2026 to Oct 24, 2026 · axis starts at the data, not at zero
How the zone is used · 61,965 names
  • Listed for salemarketplace nameservers5870.9%
  • Parkedad-parking or expiry nameservers470.1%
  • In usehosting, registrar or DNS nameservers41,83567.5%
  • Not classifiednameservers we can’t name19,49631.5%

Read from each name’s nameservers on the night shown. Listed and parked are counted separately.

How we classify
A name takes the row its nameservers match on our provider list. Verification nameservers sit beside a name’s other nameservers, so they overlap the rows above: 0.5%. List 2026.09.7+psl4b673689.

Counted from the registry’s own zone file on the night of Oct 24, 2026. A zone count is not domains under management: a registered name that is not delegated never appears in the zone, and a name on hold leaves the zone while it stays registered. The two numbers will not agree, and neither is wrong.

how many names, month by month

to
May 2025 to May 2025

Names under management at month end, as the registry reported it. Reported to ICANN monthly. Sunrise Apr 2017 to Jun 2017; general registration Jul 2017.

everything else