The .XYZ penny promo cost big bucks.
The number of registered .XYZ domains has fallen well below the 4 million mark, according to ntldstats.
And this is not the end of the line, as an additional 1.3 million .XYZ domains are in “deletion mode,” which would further lower the numbers.
XYZ rose to the top spot among new gTLDs by a controversial promotion allowing Network Solutions to stuff XYZ domains into accounts of matching .com owners; it leapt by a factor of 50,000 domains back in the day, and Rick Schwartz shared his thoughts in this DomainSherpa video excerpt.
A year ago, the XYZ registry launched an unprecedented “penny promo” that lasted over 30 days; during that time, its numbers climbed by 3 million domain names.
There is no real purpose to having a race to the gTLD top.
Every new gTLD serves a different function, but .XYZ flaunts its genericness and thus sees itself as a direct competitor to dot .COM.
For now, it seems that the penny promotion of last year isn’t working.
This year, the XYZ Registry rolled out a numeric domain extravaganza, stifled by operational problems in China, mother of all numeric domain names.
This company has the worst marketing ideas. lol.
Actually below 3 million: https://ntldstats.com/tld/xyz
PS: They are now the #2 gTLD. dotTOP is #1.