.crew
Is .crew a real TLD? Who’s applying to run it?
.crew is contested: 2 applications for it are on ICANN’s Reveal Day list, as of 7 October 2026. They are Identity Digital and INWX. XYZ Registry named .crew as a backup string for its .way application. ICANN deactivated it, because another applicant applied for the same string or named it as a backup. Intercap named .crew as a backup string for its .account application. ICANN deactivated it, because another applicant applied for the same string or named it as a backup. ShortDot named .crew as a backup string for its .xxl application. ICANN deactivated it, because another applicant applied for the same string or named it as a backup.
A niche TLD for creative collectives, esports and gaming squads, streetwear and lifestyle labels, and crew-management or staffing services (film, aviation, maritime) wanting a name that reads as a group identity.
Who is applying, and how much each already runs
Four of the 5 are tied to a registry that runs TLDs today. Identity Digital, XYZ Registry and Intercap filed 426 applications between them across the round.
The nearest 2012 strings, and how many names each holds today
The closest 2012 string, .team, held 67,162 names, June 2026. .band held 20,971; .club held 569,871. Chosen by AI from every string in the 2012 round, without being told what happened to any of them.
Near-identical bet: an everyday generic collective noun for a group of people who work together, sold open-registry to small self-organized groups who put their own name in front of it (mycrew/myteam) rather than to any industry, brand, or community that owns the word.
Same shape of bet — a short informal collective noun that a small creative working group adopts as its primary identity — but it is anchored to one vertical (music) where .crew spans film, marine, aviation, trades and street/culture usage, so the addressable set is narrower.
Also a generic people-collective noun where the registrant is the group itself and success depends on mass adoption by countless unrelated small groups, though .club leans membership/social organization while .crew leans a working unit, so the buyer motive is adjacent rather than the same.
creative collectives, esports and gaming squads, streetwear and lifestyle labels, and crew-management or staffing services (film, aviation, maritime) wanting a name that reads as a group identity
What a .crew domain is
.crew is not a TLD yet. It is a string on our record of the ICANN 2026 new gTLD round, in our Culture category. 2 applications for it are on ICANN’s Reveal Day list.
Is the .crew domain extension real yet?
.crew is not yet a domain extension you can register: nothing resolves under it, and no registrar sells names in it. It is a string applicants have put forward in the ICANN 2026 new gTLD round, the process that decides whether it becomes one.
When can you buy a .crew domain?
You can’t yet. A .crew name can only be registered once the string is delegated (added to the DNS root) and its registry opens. Last round's closest parallel to .crew was .team, delegated on 16 April 2015.
Is .crew a real TLD?
Not yet. .crew is not in the DNS root, so nothing resolves under it. It’s here because .crew is on ICANN’s Reveal Day list of applied-for strings. Every entry on this page links to its source.
- XYZ Registry · first recordedICANN
- ShortDot · now deactivated backupICANN
- Intercap · first recordedICANN
- ShortDot · now abandonedICANN
- Identity Digital · first recordedICANN
- INWX · now confirmedICANN
- INWX · first recordedDomain Name Wire (Andrew Allemann), reporting INWX's announcement
- ShortDot · now announced
- ShortDot · first recordedShortDot (Ireland) Limited
“AM2619T-T35024 · Acid Medal, LLC · primary · contention set 2026-58 I2639T-T66696 · INWX Domains GmbH · primary · contention set 2026-58”ICANN
The source’s 5 linesHide the lines
AM2619T-T35024 · Acid Medal, LLC · primary · contention set 2026-58 I2639T-T66696 · INWX Domains GmbH · primary · contention set 2026-58 IRI2679T-T34407 · Intercap Registry Inc. · replacement string of .account · Deactivated NA2626T-T64321 · ShortDot (Ireland) Limited · replacement string of .xxl · Deactivated XL2625T-T81913 · XYZ.COM LLC · replacement string of .way · Deactivated
“INWX Domains GmbH, a domain name registrar based in Berlin, announced that it has applied for the .crew top level domains.”Domain Name Wire (Andrew Allemann), reporting INWX's announcement
“ShortDot (Ireland) Limited has submitted 40 applications to ICANN's 2026 New gTLD Program. The 80 strings shown include applied-for and designated replacement strings across ShortDot's 40 ICANN applications, presented without revealing their status or pairing.”ShortDot (Ireland) Limited
- Band chosen: 30-49 (usable but limited). 'Crew' is a widely used English word for a team or collective and already appears inside consumer brand names (apparel, staffing, creator collectives), so end-use exists for esports squads, streetwear labels, film/aviation/maritime crew services, and community projects. By analogy (flagged as analogy), the closest existing strings — .team and .club — show that group-identity TLDs attract real but modest primary-identity use and a thin aftermarket, with volume driven heavily by promotional pricing rather than brand pull; nothing suggests .crew would outperform them, and .team already occupies the same semantic slot. It is not in the 50-69 band because there is no evidence of sustained demand where serious projects would pick .crew as a primary identity without explanation, and the operator's recorded portfolio (.icu, .cyou, .bond, .cfd, .sbs) is associated, by analogy, with price-led registration dynamics that produce weak brand signal. It is not in the 10-29 band because the word is a natural, non-joke identity term with multiple genuine buyer groups, not a novelty. Main market uncertainty: whether 'crew' has enough distinct identity pull to carve real primary-identity use away from .team and .club, or whether it collects mostly speculative and promo-driven registrations.