Where the Public Million Dollar Domain Names are Registered

This past weekend, George Kirikos shared that he had discovered a seven figure domain name sale that had not ben disclosed before. According to a SEC filing, Better.com was acquired for $1,820,000. George wrote about the domain name sale on his FreeSpeech.com blog. I also added the sale to the Embrace.com list of recent one word .com domain name sales.

On Twitter, George suggested that it would be interesting to see where domain names that were (publicly) sold for one million or more are currently registered.

[1/2] A potential blog post for those with time on their hands (or automated tools). According to @NameBio, there are 136 public transactions of $1 million or more (137 once Better(.)com is added).

Story Idea: Find the current registrar of each “million dollar domain” (cont’d)

— George Kirikos (@GeorgeKirikos) August 7, 2021

I also thought that would be neat to see, and it would be fairly easy to do.

I started by searching NameBio for all public million dollar plus domain name sales and downloaded them into a CSV file. This was easy because I have a paid NameBio account, allowing me to search sales data and download reports like this. I then used the bulk Whois search tool at DomainIQ using my paid account. Among other attributes of the Whois records, I am able to see where each domain name is registered.

Here is the registrar information for the publicly reported million dollar domain name sales found on NameBio:

Domain Registrar
01.com ENAME
114.com GODADDY
20.com ENAME
37.com ENAME
55.com GODADDY
588.com GODADDY
altavista.com MARKMONITOR
angel.com UNIREGISTRY
asseenontv.com GODADDY
auction.com GODADDY
autos.com GODADDY
banks.com DREAMHOST
beer.com UNIREGISTRY
better.com NAMECHEAP
bingo.com SAFENAMES
branson.com NETWORK SOLUTIONS
britain.com REGISTER.COM
btc.com GODADDY
bullish.com MARKMONITOR
california.com GODADDY
call.com GODADDY
cameras.com DNC HOLDINGS
candy.com GODADDY
casino.com ASCIO
chatter.com MARKMONITOR
check.com PSI-USA
chinese.com GODADDY
christmas.com FABULOUS.COM
clothes.com MARKMONITOR
computer.com DNC HOLDINGS
coupons.com NETWORK SOLUTIONS
creditcards.com NETWORK SOLUTIONS
cruise.co.uk MESH DIGITAL LIMITED T/A DOMAINMONSTER.COM
cruises.co.uk MESH DIGITAL LIMITED T/A DOMAINMONSTER.COM
cyberworks.com GODADDY
datarecovery.com NAMECHEAP
dating.com RU-CENTER
delta.com LADAS
deposit.com NAMECHEAP
diamond.com EPIK
domainname.com GODADDY
dudu.com HETZNER ONLINE
dxl.com NETWORK SOLUTIONS
ebet.com NAME.COM
ebike.com CSC
ee.com GODADDY
eflowers.com GOOGLE
eko.com GODADDY
england.com REGISTER.COM
enjoy.com NETWORK SOLUTIONS
eth.com NAME.COM
exodus.com CLOUDFLARE, INC.
express.com CSC
fb.com REGISTRARSAFE, LLC
feedback.com MARKMONITOR
find.com GODADDY
fish.com NETWORK SOLUTIONS
fly.com NETWORK SOLUTIONS
flying.com GODADDY
freedom.com NETWORK SOLUTIONS
fund.com SAFENAMES
gambling.com SAFENAMES
guy.com GODADDY
healthinsurance.com GODADDY
hg.com INTERNET WORKS ONLINE INTERNATIONAL (HK) CO., LIMITED
ice.com MARKMONITOR
if.com CSC
ig.com MARKMONITOR
invest.com SAFENAMES
investing.com GODADDY
is.com GODADDY
jade.com GODADDY
kk.com HICHINA
korea.com GABIA
kredit.de DENIC.DE
la.com GODADDY
loans.com CSC
lotto.com EURODNS
marketingtoday.com GODADDY
meme.com NORDREG
men.com EURODNS
mercury.com GODADDY
mi.com NETWORK SOLUTIONS
mm.com ENAME
mortgage.com CSC
myworld.com EURODNS
personalloans.com FABULOUS.COM
pharmacy.com CSC
phone.com CSC
photo.com PSI-USA
pizza.com GODADDY
poker.org GODADDY
porn.com EURODNS
porno.com DNC HOLDINGS
power.com NETWORK SOLUTIONS
px.com GODADDY
qnb.com GODADDY
ring.com MARKMONITOR
rock.com CSC
russia.com GODADDY
rx.com NAMECHEAP
savings.com NETWORK SOLUTIONS
scores.com NETWORK SOLUTIONS
seniors.com GODADDY
sex.com NETWORK SOLUTIONS
sex.xxx NAME.COM
shop.com DOMAIN.COM
sky.com MARKMONITOR
slots.com SAFENAMES
software.com GODADDY
super.com ENOM
tandberg.com MARKMONITOR
tdc.com EURODNS
telephone.com TUCOWS
ticket.com NORDREG
tm.com GODADDY
tom.com XIN NET
topix.com CLOUDFLARE, INC.
toys.com MARKMONITOR
vip.com HICHINA
vista.com MARKMONITOR
vivo.com HICHINA
vodka.com MONIKER
voice.com MARKMONITOR
wallstreet.com GODADDY
we.com HICHINA
webcam.com FABULOUS.COM
whisky.com KEY-SYSTEMS
wine.com NETWORK SOLUTIONS
youxi.com ENAME
yp.com CSC
z.com GMO
zip.com MARKMONITOR
zoom.com GODADDY

Top 4 registrars in the list:

• GoDaddy – 35 domain names
• MarkMonitor – 14 domain names
• Network Solutions – 14 domain names
• CSC – 9 domain names

There are a few important caveats and notes here. In the list of 136 public million dollar domain name sales in the NameBio database, Fly.com was listed three times and Sex.com was listed twice. I removed the duplicates. I also added Better.com since that hasn’t been added to NameBio yet but should be soon.

In addition and most importantly, the NameBio million dollar sale list is only a fraction of all million dollar domain name sales. NameBio only reports sales that are publicly reported by others. In addition, there are many million dollar domain names that were never purchased after they were registered (to my knowledge). For instance, I would imagine Discover has owned Discover.com and American Airlines has owned AA.com since they were initially registered. I think those domain names are million dollar domain names and they aren’t counted here.