.io domain name market performs strongly in 2024 as tech startups accelerate investments

According to Namepros, the .io extension remains one of the most popular domain names in the global domain market after .com. Especially among tech startups, .io domains are becoming the preferred choice of more and more entrepreneurs because of their uniqueness and strong association with the tech industry. Within the past five years, according to NameBio, 1,619 sales of .io domain names at $1,000 or more were recorded, totaling approximately $10.3 million in sales with an average price of $6,344, fully demonstrating the extended market value of the domain name.

1. .io Domain Name Sales Trend Analysis

The year 2021 is considered to be the best performing year for the .io domain name market, especially the number of domain names sold at $1,000 and above reached a record high of 440. The average sale price also reached $8,267, far exceeding other years.

Although 2024 is not yet over, based on current sales data, 2024 is expected to be the second best year after 2021, further proving the steady growth of the .io domain name market.

2. Record High-Value Domains and Top-Level Sales

Of all the 1,619 .io domain name transactions sold, 12 transactions were priced at more than $100,000 and 35 transactions were priced at more than $50,000 USD.

Among them, 2021 mint.io sold for the highest price of $230,000, making it one of the benchmarks in the .io domain market.

Other high-value domain names such as 7.io and 0.io were sold for $150,000 and $125,000 respectively in 2024, showing the great potential of short character numeric domain names.

3. Domain Length and Character Count Trends

Most high-value .io domain names are between 3 and 9 characters in length. In particular, domains with 4 characters performed particularly well with an average sale price of $10,220.

Notably, domain names longer than 9 characters tend to sell for less, indicating that short and memorable domain names continue to dominate the market.

In particular, numeric domain names (e.g. 7.io and 0.io) and domain names containing hyphens are scarce in the market and their high value transactions are a testament to the superiority of short and simple domain names.

4. Performance of specific suffixes and letter combinations

In the five years of trading, some specific letter combinations and suffixes stood out. For example, .io domains ending in “ing” had a very strong sales performance, with an average price of $9,811 across 38 transactions.

Of these, “gaming.io” sold for $105,000 and “boxing.io” for $65,000, further demonstrating the popularity of the “ing” suffix in specific domains.

Additionally, .io domains are rarely sold starting with “the” or “my”, which is a departure from the traditional .com domain market. Nonetheless, domain names such as “thewallet.io” continue to sell at higher prices, showing that in isolated cases these prefixes can still be successful in the marketplace.

The widest use of .io domain names continues to be in the technology and financial services industries. Many emerging tech startups are choosing .io as their online identity, especially in cutting-edge tech areas such as blockchain, fintech, and artificial intelligence.