Strong start to 2026: NZ domains blast past all-time high record

Late last year we noticed that .nz domains were slowly climbing towards an all-time-high tally. Good news: that trajectory was maintained, and that record has been well and truly surpassed.

That all time high within reach? We reached it

Data from New Zealand’s Domain Name Commission shows that the .nz domains got off to a rocketing start in 2026. On the back of steady growth throughout 2025, January had almost 2,000 new .nz domains created, taking us past the previous all-time-high of 758,495 registered domains and into uncharted territory. And then after a strong January, we had an even stronger February.

By the end of March there were 764,987 .nz domains registered, a new record. Prior to 2026, the record sat at 758,493 (from 2023). That record has been well and truly left in the dust.

Biggest month we’ve seen in a while

Usually month-on-month domain numbers change up or down by about 1,000, maybe 2,000 if it's a big month. Domains grew by nearly 4,500 this February.

The last time the .nz namespace grew this much in a single month was way back in March 2017 (which had an increase of 8,485). That month was a special case, because a large number of “conflicted” .nz domains were made available to register. Conflicts were cases where, say, the owners of example.co.nz and example.net.nz both wanted to register example.nz, and March 2017 was when they got to race for the rights. It’s not so clear why .nz domains jumped so much in February this year, although we’ll explore it a little bit later in the article when we look at second-level domains.
Month-on-month, the trend looks really positive. The line stagnated a bit towards the tail end of 2025, but otherwise the trend line suggests 2026 will continue the upward trend building throughout last year (as long as the global economy doesn’t torpedo itself).

Positive growth continues

Another way to assess a namespace’s health is by looking at its growth rate (the percentage increase in domains from the year prior). March had 1.9% growth year-on-year, a big upturn from 0.5% growth in March 2025. If the current momentum continues we could be looking at growth rates above 2%, a rate we haven’t seen since mid-2023.
Before we get too carried away with record-highs and optimistic growth rates, we need to dig deeper into some of the more nuanced metrics.

Deletes still outpacing creates, but closing in

Comparing the .nz domains created in a period of time against the .nz domains deleted in that same period tells a slightly different, though still optimistic, story. The Domain Name Commission calculates these stat points with a 6-month moving average, likely done this way to account for domains uncancelled in the window. Uncancels are domains that aren’t renewed before their expiration date, but are renewed within the 90-day redemption period immediately after. It’s also worth noting that the Commission’s stats for creates and deletes are tallied without counting uncancels.

Their data shows domain creations trailing behind deletions in recent years—at least since January 2023. Which isn’t as glowingly positive as the earlier stats, but the gap between the two appears to be narrowing.

If creations continue outpacing deletions, then the .nz namespace will be in a really healthy place. At that point the growth rate will be positive before accounting for uncancels, meaning the namespace is actually expanding rather than just maintaining its current size.

Thanks to data from InternetNZ we can see the pure amount of creates and deletes in any given month, without any 6-month averaging. As we observed earlier, there were significantly more new domains created and a big drop in deletes in February, followed by another big rise of creates again in March.

Once the Commission’s 6-month-rolling average catches up to the recent months’ momentum, we’ll likely see these lines cross over again. The 6-month average is trailing, because it’s still "remembering" the high deletion months from late 2025.

Direct .nz domains carrying the pack

A ~12,000 year-on-year increase in the namespace is worthy of closer examination. Looking at InternetNZ’s stats gives us a better idea of where those new domains are coming from, and which second-level domains (2LDs) are driving that growth.

The biggest contributor to that growth is the .nz direct domain. The .nzdirect 2LD grew by 6,000 year-on-year (February 2026 to February 2025). That’s just over 50% of the total domain growth in that time, particularly impressive for a 2LD that makes up around 22% of the .nz domain namespace (165,756 according to the latest data).

A large chunk of the rest of the domain growth comes from .co.nz, which is unsurprising considering it makes up 71% of all domains in the .nz namespace. Other big 2LDs like .net.nz and .org.nz were somewhat stagnant.

Renewal rate - a steadying ship?

Another way to measure the wellbeing of a namespace is to look at its renewal rate, or retention ratio. Each month a percentage of .nz domains reach their renewal date. The renewal ratio measures how many of the domains available for renewal in that time period were actually renewed.
From mid-2022 to 2024, .nz domain renewal rates looked to be dropping. Since then it’s hovered between 83% and 86%. Our last reporting on renewal rates was a bit gloomy, noting that the renewal rate was a drag on growth. It still is, and after another dip in November/December (an annual trend at this point) renewal rates are pretty much exactly where they were in September last year: 85.4%. It seems renewal rates are steadying at that ~85% mark.

85% is much better than 75%

Before we start sounding too pessimistic about renewal rates, it’s worth noting that .nz domains currently have a much healthier renewal rate than .au domains. Our Australian counterpart has had its renewal rate trending downwards consistently for so long that now .au domains are only renewed at a 75% rate. Even over in the UK, .uk domains renew between 78-80% of the time. Our 85% renewal rate, despite it being a touch lower than previous heights, is comparatively quite strong.

A quick word about .nz prices

Domain prices vary a lot depending on the retailer you’re looking at.

Alongside all the stats discussed above, the Domain Name Commission also reports pricing data. Their stats show the current median price for .nz domains sits at $38.50. It’s well above what you’d pay for .nz domains here at MyHost.

At MyHost we offer .nz domains for $29.95/yr (excl. GST), which is lower than our competitors at:

• HostPapa - $39.99, plus another $39.95 for so-called “essentials”
• Discount Domains - $38.95
• Crazy Domains - $35

Every dollar counts, and by transferring your .nz domains to us, you can save money over any of these competitors - and many others.