.hunt
Is .hunt a real TLD? Who’s applying to run it?
Nobody has applied for .hunt in its own right, as of 7 October 2026. Link Freedom Group named .hunt as the backup string of its .mars application.
Nobody has applied for .hunt in its own right.
Will names sell?
A memorable niche domain for hunting, outdoors, and search-themed projects, but few serious businesses would make it their main address.
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. .hunt’s closest 2012 strings hold .fishing 3K, .ski 7K and .surf 49K.
The nearest 2012 strings, and how many names each holds today
The closest 2012 string, .fishing, held 2,581 names, June 2026. .ski held 6,603; .surf held 48,685. Chosen by AI from every string in the 2012 round, without being told what happened to any of them.
Near-identical bet: a single generic outdoor-pursuit word owned by no one, sold to the same fragmented long tail of guides, outfitters, gear sellers and enthusiast clubs who would put their primary identity on the activity itself.
Same bet shape — a short activity noun that doubles as a verb, monetized through a gear-and-destination industry plus a self-identifying hobbyist community — though skiing's buyer base is resort-anchored rather than dispersed across small operators.
Also a terse sport-verb string carrying a second figurative meaning (surf the web / job hunt), so the bet depends on lifestyle-identity registrations and wordplay as much as on the literal industry.
hunting and outdoors businesses (outfitters, guides, gear retailers, hunting media), plus search-and-discovery products (job-hunt, house-hunt, treasure-hunt apps) wanting a verb-like brandable ending.
What a .hunt domain is
.hunt is not a TLD yet. It is a string on our record of the ICANN 2026 new gTLD round, in our Culture category. Nobody has applied for .hunt in its own right. It is named on ICANN’s list as part of an application for another string.
Is the .hunt domain extension real yet?
.hunt is not yet a domain extension you can register: nothing resolves under it, and no registrar sells names in it. Nobody has applied for it on the public record; the ICANN 2026 new gTLD round is the process that would decide whether it becomes one.
When can you buy a .hunt domain?
You can’t yet. A .hunt 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 .hunt was .fishing, delegated on 31 March 2014.
Is .hunt a real TLD?
Not yet. .hunt is not in the DNS root, so nothing resolves under it. It’s here because ICANN’s list names .hunt as part of an application for another string. Every entry on this page links to its source.
- Link Freedom Group · now replacementICANN
- Link Freedom Group · first recordedLink Freedom Group
“LFGL2683T-T17799 · Link Freedom Group Ltd · replacement string of .mars”ICANN
“.hunt · Lifestyle · “Seek, find, achieve.””Link Freedom Group
- Band chosen: usable but limited (30-49). The string is a short, common English word with two plausible demand pools: the hunting/outdoors lifestyle vertical and a verb reading ('job hunt', 'house hunt', 'scavenger hunt') that suits discovery-style products. By analogy with existing single-hobby lifestyle TLDs such as .fish, .surf, and .ski (analogy, not measured data), such strings tend to attract modest registration bases and hobbyist or promotional use rather than primary business identities; the incumbent vertical skews traditional and .com-loyal, and outdoor brands over the next 5 years seem more likely to keep .hunt names as campaign or redirect domains than as their main address. It is not in the 50-69 band because there is no visible sign of sustained primary-identity adoption or a functioning aftermarket for close analogs, and adoption would need explaining to customers in a conservative vertical. It is not in the 10-29 band because the word has genuine, recurring commercial meaning in a real vertical plus a second verb-driven use case, so demand should be steadier than a joke or event-driven string. Applicant context: the string is announced by Link Freedom Group, which filed more than 300 strings in the ICANN 2026 round and published its catalog listing .hunt under 'Lifestyle' with the tagline 'Seek, find, achieve.'; a large-portfolio applicant suggests a volume/retail go-to-market rather than a single-community registry push, which typically caps brand-signal strength (inference from the portfolio model, not a claim about the operator's quality). Main market uncertainty: whether the verb reading pulls in tech/discovery startups as primary identities, which would lift it toward strong-niche territory, or whether demand stays confined to defensive and hobbyist registrations in the hunting vertical.