.verse
Is .verse a real TLD? Who’s applying to run it?
Nobody has applied for .verse in its own right, as of 7 October 2026. Suffix named .verse as a backup string for its .indie application. ICANN deactivated it, because another applicant applied for the same string or named it as a backup. GoDaddy Registry named .verse as a backup string for its .pod application. ICANN deactivated it, because another applicant applied for the same string or named it as a backup. Link Freedom Group named .verse as a backup string for its .quantum application. ICANN deactivated it, because another applicant applied for the same string or named it as a backup.
Nobody has applied for .verse in its own right.
Will names sell?
A playful pick for virtual worlds, games, and creative projects, but most serious brands will treat it as a side domain, not 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. .verse’s closest 2012 strings hold .world 444K, .space 635K and .zone 53K.
The nearest 2012 strings, and how many names each holds today
The closest 2012 string, .world, held 444,273 names, June 2026. .space held 634,547; .zone held 52,525. Chosen by AI from every string in the 2012 round, without being told what happened to any of them.
Same bet: an expansive, non-specific English noun sold as a container for "your own everything," bought by anyone building a self-contained universe of content, community, or brand rather than by any defined industry.
Same bet on a common noun whose literal meaning is nearly irrelevant to the pitch — it works only if registrants read it as an open, imaginative frame for a place of their own, which is exactly the job the "-verse" suffix does.
Also a bounded-world container noun aimed at buyers who want a branded domain-of-its-own, but it reads more territorial and utilitarian than the creator/fandom connotation of "-verse," so it attracts a narrower set of primary-identity registrants.
Where they meet elsewhere
Link Freedom Group and GoDaddy Registry face each other in 32 contests this round, .verse included.
- Link Freedom Group × GoDaddy Registry
- Link Freedom Group × Suffix
- GoDaddy Registry × Suffix
creators of virtual worlds, game studios, immersive-experience startups, and writers or artists playing on 'verse' as in universe, metaverse, or poetry; secondarily web3 world-building projects.
What a .verse domain is
.verse 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 .verse in its own right. It is named on ICANN’s list as part of an application for another string.
Is the .verse domain extension real yet?
.verse 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 .verse domain?
You can’t yet. A .verse 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 .verse was .world, delegated on 19 September 2014.
Is .verse a real TLD?
Not yet. .verse is not in the DNS root, so nothing resolves under it. It’s here because ICANN’s list names .verse as part of an application for another string. Every entry on this page links to its source.
- 2 applicants · first recordedICANN
- Link Freedom Group · now deactivated backupICANN
- Link Freedom Group · now abandonedICANN
- Link Freedom Group · first recordedLink Freedom Group
“LFGL2683T-T77631 · Link Freedom Group Ltd · replacement string of .quantum · Deactivated NA2631T-T31883 · Registry Services, LLC · replacement string of .pod · Deactivated SI2639T-T52624 · Suffix Inc. · replacement string of .indie · Deactivated”ICANN
“.verse · Lifestyle · “For worlds you invent.””Link Freedom Group
- The string reads as the suffix of 'universe' and 'metaverse' and as the poetry word, which gives it a clear if narrow semantic hook: invented worlds, immersive platforms, creative fiction. That supports genuine suffix-style brand hacks (name.verse) and some primary-identity use among indie game and world-building projects over the next 5 years. But the metaverse framing that would make it a category standard has cooled as a market narrative, and the word alone does not signal a commercial category the way .shop or .app does. I place it in the 30-49 band (usable but limited): registrations are plausible at volume among hobbyists and creative projects, but the brand signal is weak outside a small scene and the aftermarket is likely thin. It is not in the 50-69 band because I see no sustained, self-explaining demand pocket where .verse is the expected address; adoption would need explaining even inside gaming and creative circles, and competing generics (.world, .space, .games as analogies) already cover the same buyers, an inference from analogy since their outcomes are, in my assessment, volume-and-price driven rather than premium primary-identity markets. It is above the 10-29 band because the word is a real, pleasant dictionary morpheme with durable suffix-hack utility, not a joke or single-event string. Applicant context: Link Freedom Group filed it among more than 300 strings in the ICANN 2026 round, cataloged under Lifestyle with the tagline 'For worlds you invent.'; a large-portfolio applicant suggests broad speculative coverage rather than a dedicated adoption push, which tempers my expectation of category-building marketing, stated neutrally. Main market uncertainty: whether immersive/virtual-world platforms re-emerge as a mainstream funded category within 5 years, which would move .verse toward a niche standard.