Defaults.Exposed

New gTLD ghost towns: where dead domains cluster

Top-level domains do not decay at the same rate. In the September 2026 census, new gTLDs, the wave of endings sold since 2013, lose names to non-resolution at roughly six times the rate of the established country-code domains. Most of the ghost towns of the internet carry a new-gTLD ending.

The rate gap

Across new gTLDs, meaning gTLDs other than com, net and org, 614,567 of 69,574,931 delegated domains no longer resolve, a dead rate of 0.883%. The country-code domains sit at 0.144%, 125,069 of 86,631,870. Same measurement, six times the abandonment. “Dead” here means a name still listed in the zone that returns nothing usable when queried, the strict end of the dark-matter population.

The averages hide the real ghost towns, which are a small set of cheap, promotion-driven endings:

One in nine .cfd domains that were registered no longer answer. An ending sold in bulk at a low price attracts registrations that are abandoned in bulk when the first year lapses, and the zone keeps listing them until the registry cleans up.

What it does not mean

A dead domain is an abandoned one, which is a different finding from an insecure one. This page counts resolution, not grades. A .cfd domain that still resolves can score anywhere; the point here is only that a large share of the ending never resolves at all. If you are choosing an ending, a high ghost-town rate is a signal about the neighbourhood’s churn, and it says nothing on its own about whether the live domains are configured well. The how the domains were counted page explains how alive, dead and graded are separated.

See your own

The free scan reads your domain live. If it resolves, you get a grade; if your ending is a ghost town, that has no bearing on your own result, only on the company your name keeps in the zone.

Figures as of 5 September 2026, from the September 2026 edition of the defaults.exposed census. Census numbers move every month; the current values are on the data page.