.yes
Is .yes a real TLD? Who’s applying to run it?
.yes is contested: 5 applications for it are on ICANN’s Reveal Day list, as of 7 October 2026. They are NextGEN TLDs, Intercap, Aruba, ShortDot and Link Freedom Group. XYZ Registry named .yes as a backup string for its .street 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
Three of the five already run TLDs, 5.11M names between them. Link Freedom Group and NextGEN TLDs run none.
Will names sell?
A fun, positive address for campaigns, proposals, and slogans, but few serious projects would make it their 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. .yes’s closest 2012 strings hold .wow 2, .now 27K and .love 69K.
The nearest 2012 strings, and how many names each holds today
The closest 2012 string, .wow, held 2 names, June 2026. .now held 27,481; .love held 68,867. Chosen by AI from every string in the 2012 round, without being told what happened to any of them.
Same bet: a one-syllable interjection with no category, industry, or community behind it, sold on the premise that a pure expressive utterance can carry a namespace for anyone who wants attitude rather than classification.
Same bet on a function word that only earns its keep as the back half of a phrase (say.yes / buy.now), so the registry is selling sentence construction rather than a market segment, though .now leans on commercial urgency where .yes leans on affirmation.
Same bet on a universal positive-emotion word with no owning industry, aimed at the same diffuse buyer set (personal pages, weddings, campaigns, brand slogans) and dependent on the same thing being true: that sentiment alone motivates a primary identity.
Where they meet elsewhere
XYZ Registry and Link Freedom Group face each other in 49 contests this round, .yes included.
- Link Freedom Group × XYZ Registry
- Link Freedom Group × Intercap
- Link Freedom Group × ShortDot
- XYZ Registry × Intercap
- XYZ Registry × ShortDot
marketers and event-page builders running affirmation-framed campaigns (say.yes, i-said.yes), wedding and proposal announcements, and slogan-driven landing pages; occasionally brands wanting an upbeat call-to-action domain.
What a .yes domain is
.yes is not a TLD yet. It is a string on our record of the ICANN 2026 new gTLD round, in our Culture category. 5 applications for it are on ICANN’s Reveal Day list.
Is the .yes domain extension real yet?
.yes 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 .yes domain?
You can’t yet. A .yes 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 .yes was .wow, delegated on 26 September 2016.
Is .yes a real TLD?
Not yet. .yes is not in the DNS root, so nothing resolves under it. It’s here because .yes is on ICANN’s Reveal Day list of applied-for strings. Every entry on this page links to its source.
- XYZ Registry · first recordedICANN
- 2 applicants · first recordedICANN
- 3 applicants · now confirmedICANN
- ShortDot · now announced
- Aruba · first recordedDomain Name Wire (Andrew Allemann), quoting Aruba S.p.A.
- ShortDot · first recordedShortDot (Ireland) Limited
- Link Freedom Group · first recordedLink Freedom Group
The source’s 5 linesHide the lines
APEC2611T-T13650 · Aruba PEC S.P.A. · primary · contention set 2026-261 IRI2679T-T72228 · Intercap Registry Inc. · primary · contention set 2026-261 LFGL2683T-T42310 · Link Freedom Group Ltd · primary · contention set 2026-261 NA2626T-T19698 · ShortDot (Ireland) Limited · primary · contention set 2026-261 NTG2671T-T67583 · NextGEN TLDs GmbH · primary · contention set 2026-261
The source’s 6 linesHide the lines
APEC2611T-T13650 · Aruba PEC S.P.A. · primary · contention set 2026-261 IRI2679T-T72228 · Intercap Registry Inc. · primary · contention set 2026-261 LFGL2683T-T42310 · Link Freedom Group Ltd · primary · contention set 2026-261 NA2626T-T19698 · ShortDot (Ireland) Limited · primary · contention set 2026-261 NTG2671T-T67583 · NextGEN TLDs GmbH · primary · contention set 2026-261 XL2625T-T37290 · XYZ.COM LLC · replacement string of .street · Deactivated
“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.
“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
“.yes · Culture · “Say yes, open doors.””Link Freedom Group
- I place .yes in the 30-49 band (usable but limited), near its bottom edge. The string is a universally understood affirmation, which gives it repeatable phrase-based registration demand: 'verb.yes' and 'i-said.yes' constructions suit weddings, proposals, marketing calls-to-action, and campaign microsites. That keeps it out of the 10-29 vanity band, where demand is a one-off joke; affirmation phrasing recurs across events and campaigns each year. It does not reach 50-69 because there is no category where .yes would be a sustained primary identity: by analogy with expression-style TLDs such as .lol, .wtf, .fun, and .love (analogy, not verified data), registrations in this family tend to be price-driven, event-driven, and short-lived, with weak renewal behavior and a thin aftermarket, and businesses rarely anchor their brand on them. The verified facts show only an announced application by Link Freedom Group, categorized 'Culture' with the tagline 'Say yes, open doors.'; the applicant's large multi-string portfolio filing suggests portfolio-style rather than category-champion promotion, which I treat neutrally as an adoption-likelihood input. My main market uncertainty, assuming general availability, is whether wedding/proposal and campaign use converts into renewing registrations and any resale demand, or stays a churn-heavy event namespace over the next 5 years.