.gaming
Is .gaming a real TLD? Who’s applying to run it?
.gaming is contested: 6 applications for it are on ICANN’s Reveal Day list, as of 7 October 2026. They are XYZ Registry, XServer, UltraView, Intercap, CamConnecting and Identity Digital. Aruba named .gaming as a backup string for its .tag application. ICANN deactivated it, because another applicant applied for the same string or named it as a backup.
A niche TLD for gaming communities, esports teams, streamers, indie studios and gaming-media sites, plus regulated igaming operators in markets where "gaming" means gambling.
Who is applying, and how much each already runs
Five of the 7 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, .games, held 70,261 names, June 2026. .game held 8,391; .juegos held 643. Chosen by AI from every string in the 2012 round, without being told what happened to any of them.
Same bet exactly: an unowned generic category noun for the play/interactive-entertainment industry, sold to studios, communities and hobbyists who want the category itself as their identity, and dependent on the same thing being true — that enough of the category will re-anchor off .com onto a word everyone in it already uses.
The singular of the same generic category noun, betting on the same open-registry land-grab in the same vertical with the same buyer set — the only difference is the grammatical form the buyer prefers on the right of the dot, not the wager underneath it.
Identical bet — plain category noun for the games industry, no owner, primary identity for game businesses — but scoped to a single language market, so it wagers on a linguistic slice of the buyer pool rather than the whole category.
gaming communities, esports teams, streamers, indie studios and gaming-media sites, plus regulated igaming operators in markets where "gaming" means gambling
What a .gaming domain is
.gaming is not a TLD yet. It is a string on our record of the ICANN 2026 new gTLD round, in our Culture category. 6 applications for it are on ICANN’s Reveal Day list.
Is the .gaming domain extension real yet?
.gaming 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 .gaming domain?
You can’t yet. A .gaming 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 .gaming was .games, delegated on 2 June 2016.
Is .gaming a real TLD?
Not yet. .gaming is not in the DNS root, so nothing resolves under it. It’s here because .gaming is on ICANN’s Reveal Day list of applied-for strings. Every entry on this page links to its source.
- Aruba · now deactivated backupICANN
- Aruba · now abandonedICANN
- 6 applicants · first recordedICANN
- Aruba · first recordedDomain Name Wire (Andrew Allemann), quoting Aruba S.p.A.
The source’s 6 linesHide the lines
AM2619T-T51241 · Acid Medal, LLC · primary · contention set 2026-90 CCS2640T-T43697 · Cam Connecting SARL · primary · contention set 2026-90 IRI2679T-T68212 · Intercap Registry Inc. · primary · contention set 2026-90 UA2620T-T78897 · ULTRAVIEW AG · primary · contention set 2026-90 XCI2688T-T62426 · XServer Cloud Incorporated · primary · contention set 2026-90 XL2625T-T25851 · XYZ.COM LLC · primary · contention set 2026-90
The source’s 7 linesHide the lines
AM2619T-T51241 · Acid Medal, LLC · primary · contention set 2026-90 APEC2611T-T53753 · Aruba PEC S.P.A. · replacement string of .tag · Deactivated CCS2640T-T43697 · Cam Connecting SARL · primary · contention set 2026-90 IRI2679T-T68212 · Intercap Registry Inc. · primary · contention set 2026-90 UA2620T-T78897 · ULTRAVIEW AG · primary · contention set 2026-90 XCI2688T-T62426 · XServer Cloud Incorporated · primary · contention set 2026-90 XL2625T-T25851 · XYZ.COM LLC · primary · contention set 2026-90
“Aruba S.p.A., which operates the .cloud top level domain, is expanding its domain portfolio. The company told Domain Name Wire that it applied for 39 top level domains in this year's new TLD round. That number includes replacement strings. [...] The company applied for the following strings as primary or replacement: aid, all, ask, beta, bit, bnb, cart, ciao, daily, demo, easy, fix, gaming, gen, genius, gym, happy, hello, hola, human, kit, lab, mars, max, moon, omg, pec, pop, rem, roma, sign, sito, super, tag, tex, vps, yes, zen, zzz”Domain Name Wire (Andrew Allemann), quoting Aruba S.p.A.
- Band chosen: usable but limited (30-49). The string is a plain, globally understood descriptor for one of the largest consumer categories, so registrations at volume are plausible and some projects will use it as a real identity; that keeps it above the vanity band. It is not in the strong-niche band because, by analogy (flagged), the gaming vertical already has entrenched endings: .gg (a country-code TLD) became the community and esports favourite, and the 2012-round strings .games and .game exist in the same semantic cluster without becoming a primary-identity default, so a third variant enters as a latecomer with a weaker brand signal and, by analogy, a thin aftermarket. The word's second meaning (gambling, as in 'gaming regulator' or 'igaming') widens the buyer pool to regulated betting operators but blurs the brand signal for video-game buyers. Applicant context: the operator behind the record runs an existing generic TLD that the source states has over 500,000 registrations, which makes competent registrar distribution likely but is not evidence of demand for this string. Main market uncertainty: whether the gaming community's attachment to shorter established endings leaves room for a descriptive alternative, and whether pricing lands mass-market or premium, which would decide volume versus vanity.