.goat
Is .goat a real TLD? Who’s applying to run it?
.goat is contested: 2 applications for it are on ICANN’s Reveal Day list, as of 7 October 2026. They are Identity Digital and ShortDot. Oinkadot named .goat as a backup string for its .panda application. ICANN deactivated it, because another applicant applied for the same string or named it as a backup. Link Freedom Group named .goat as a backup string for its .zzz application. ICANN deactivated it, because another applicant applied for the same string or named it as a backup.
Who is applying, and what they run today
Two of the two already run TLDs, 19.35M names between them. One runs one of .goat's closest 2012 strings: Identity Digital .rocks.
Will names sell?
A playful 'greatest of all time' web address for fans, athletes and campaigns; memorable, but rarely a serious main identity.
Last round the AI scored the 2012 strings blind to their fate. Strings it scored 60 or more hold a median 27,168 names today; those under 30, a median of 30. .goat’s closest 2012 strings hold .best 54K, .lol 1.13M and .rocks 63K.
The nearest 2012 strings, and how many names each holds today
The closest 2012 string, .best, held 54,475 names, June 2026. .lol held 1,126,763; .rocks held 62,901. Chosen by AI from every string in the 2012 round, without being told what happened to any of them.
Same bet at its core: a self-applied superlative status claim sold to anyone who wants to assert being on top, where the value is the boast rather than any category the registrant operates in.
Same structural bet on internet-native acronym-slang that graduated into an everyday word, monetized as cultural vocabulary and personality flair rather than as a defined industry or audience.
Same expressive-praise-slang play: a colloquial compliment word sold cheap as identity attitude, betting that people will put their name on a vibe rather than on a category.
Where they meet elsewhere
Identity Digital and Link Freedom Group face each other in 68 contests this round, .goat included.
- Identity Digital × Link Freedom Group
- Identity Digital × ShortDot
- Link Freedom Group × ShortDot
- Identity Digital × Oinkadot
- Link Freedom Group × Oinkadot
sports fans, athletes, creators, meme-makers and marketing teams who want a 'greatest of all time' hook for a fan page, tribute site or short-lived campaign
What a .goat domain is
.goat 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 .goat domain extension real yet?
.goat 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 .goat domain?
You can’t yet. A .goat 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 .goat was .best, delegated on 27 February 2014.
Is .goat a real TLD?
Not yet. .goat is not in the DNS root, so nothing resolves under it. It’s here because .goat is on ICANN’s Reveal Day list of applied-for strings. Every entry on this page links to its source.
- Oinkadot · first recordedICANN
- Link Freedom Group · now deactivated backupICANN
- Link Freedom Group · now abandonedICANN
- Identity Digital · first recordedICANN
- ShortDot · now confirmedICANN
- ShortDot · now announced
- ShortDot · first recordedShortDot (Ireland) Limited
- Link Freedom Group · first recordedLink Freedom Group
“BPL2623T-T36536 · Bird Pepper, LLC · primary · contention set 2026-98 NA2626T-T75131 · ShortDot (Ireland) Limited · primary · contention set 2026-98”ICANN
The source’s 4 linesHide the lines
BPL2623T-T36536 · Bird Pepper, LLC · primary · contention set 2026-98 LFGL2683T-T58148 · Link Freedom Group Ltd · replacement string of .zzz · Deactivated NA2626T-T75131 · ShortDot (Ireland) Limited · primary · contention set 2026-98 OI2692T-T82796 · Oinkadot Inc · replacement string of .panda · Deactivated
“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
“.goat · Culture · “Legends live here.””Link Freedom Group
- Band chosen: usable but limited (30-49), at 33. The GOAT slang is genuinely entrenched across sports, gaming and music fandom, which supports price-driven volume registrations and occasional clever brand campaigns, and 'name.goat' constructions are semantically natural in a way most novelty strings are not. It is not in the band above (strong niche, 50-69) because there is no identifiable buyer group for whom a .goat address would be a sustained primary identity; demand skews episodic (a championship, a debate, a campaign) rather than durable, and serious projects would still need to explain the choice. It is not in the band below (vanity/joke, 10-29) because, by analogy with slang and attitude TLDs such as .cool, .ninja and .lol (flagged as analogy), strings with broad positive slang meaning have shown they can sustain ongoing registration demand and a thin but real premium tier, rather than purely one-off joke buys. Registration counts, pricing and aftermarket data for those analogs are unknown to this assessment, so the comparison is qualitative only. The applicant is Link Freedom Group, which filed more than 300 strings in the ICANN 2026 round and categorizes this string as Culture with the tagline 'Legends live here.'; a large-portfolio applicant suggests a volume-oriented go-to-market, which fits the price-driven registration profile assumed here. Main market uncertainty: whether mainstream sports properties, athletes or creator platforms adopt .goat for real campaigns and fan identities within 5 years, or whether demand stays confined to low-value novelty registrations.