.nsfw
Is .nsfw a real TLD? Who’s applying to run it?
.nsfw is not contested. One application for it is on ICANN’s Reveal Day list, as of 7 October 2026. It is Endpoint Domains. Link Freedom Group named .nsfw as a backup string for its .learn 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
None of the 2 is tied to a registry that runs TLDs today. Link Freedom Group and Endpoint Domains filed 170 applications between them across the round.
Will names sell?
A catchy self-labeling address for adult content, but adult businesses mostly stay on .com; expect volume signups, not serious brands.
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. .nsfw’s closest 2012 strings hold .adult 7K, .porn 8K and .sex 7K.
The nearest 2012 strings, and how many names each holds today
The closest 2012 string, .adult, held 6,788 names, June 2026. .porn held 8,196; .sex held 7,048. Chosen by AI from every string in the 2012 round, without being told what happened to any of them.
Same bet exactly: a euphemistic self-applied content label rather than the blunt name of the thing, sold to explicit-content publishers who want a namespace that signals what's behind the door without saying it, and it only works if the label is already universally understood outside the industry.
Same buyer and same job — a walled category namespace whose entire value is that a site's primary identity announces its content class up front — differing only in register, since it is the industry's blunt category noun where the target is the internet's shorthand warning tag for the same material.
Also a one-word adult-category namespace aimed at the same operators, but it is a broad generic noun spanning health, education and commerce as well as explicit media, so it is a wider and less self-selecting bet than a string that means 'explicit content ahead' and nothing else.
adult-content creators, studios, and link-page or community operators who want an address that signals adult content up front, plus mainstream brands registering defensively
What a .nsfw domain is
.nsfw is not a TLD yet. It is a string on our record of the ICANN 2026 new gTLD round, in our Culture category. One application for it is on ICANN’s Reveal Day list.
Is the .nsfw domain extension real yet?
.nsfw 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 .nsfw domain?
You can’t yet. A .nsfw 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 .nsfw was .adult, delegated on 6 December 2014.
Is .nsfw a real TLD?
Not yet. .nsfw is not in the DNS root, so nothing resolves under it. It’s here because .nsfw is on ICANN’s Reveal Day list of applied-for strings. Every entry on this page links to its source.
- Link Freedom Group · now deactivated backupICANN
- Link Freedom Group · now abandonedICANN
- Endpoint Domains · now confirmedICANN
- Endpoint Domains · first recordedDomain Name Wire (Andrew Allemann)
- Link Freedom Group · first recordedLink Freedom Group
“EDI2665T-T15424 · Endpoint Domains, Inc. · primary LFGL2683T-T44447 · Link Freedom Group Ltd · replacement string of .learn · Deactivated”ICANN
“The company says the applications are fully paid.”Domain Name Wire (Andrew Allemann)
“.nsfw · Infra · “Strictly after hours.””Link Freedom Group
- I place .nsfw in the 30-49 band: usable but limited. The string is universally understood internet vernacular that pre-labels adult content, which gives it genuine registration appeal for creators, tube-style sites, and link hubs, and it should attract defensive registrations from mainstream brands. By analogy (flagged as analogy), existing adult-vertical TLDs have shown real registration volume but thin primary-identity adoption: the adult industry has largely kept its flagship identities on legacy namespaces, and self-labeling domains have historically drawn defensive and speculative money more than end-use. Specific registration counts, renewal rates, or sale prices for those analogous TLDs are unknown to me under the rules here, so I reason qualitatively. It is not in the 50-69 band because sustained primary-identity use is doubtful: adult businesses face payment, advertising, and platform-policy pressure, and a domain that broadcasts the content category can be a liability (jurisdictional and network-level blocking of adult-labeled namespaces is a plausible risk by analogy, exact scope unknown). It is not in the 10-29 band because demand is not merely event-driven or joke-driven; there is a large, durable commercial vertical whose sites plausibly register in volume, and the slang term extends beyond pornography into edgy-content culture broadly. Applicant facts, stated neutrally: the applicant, Link Freedom Group, filed more than 300 strings in the ICANN 2026 round and published its list ahead of Reveal Day; its catalog files this string under 'Infra' with the tagline 'Strictly after hours.' A portfolio of that breadth suggests per-string marketing attention may be shared across many launches, which tempers, without deciding, near-term adoption expectations. My main market uncertainty: whether the creator economy (independent adult creators and their link/landing pages) treats a self-labeling domain as an asset or as a discoverability and deplatforming liability over the next 5 years.