Top 100 Brandable Domain Name Sales In 2020: Data, Trends, and Insights

Studying the total number of domains bought by VC-backed startups is just one part of further understanding the premium domain market. Honing your strategy as a domain investor to be even more effective depends on also looking at what the top brandable domain name sales each year have in common.

When this information is taken together, analyzed, and studied, then an investor has the necessary knowledge and tools to find the domain names most likely to bring a big payday and to avoid those trap domains that sound good but don’t meet the metrics that startups are looking for.

Here’s what we will cover in this analysis:

1. Raw data of top brandable domains
2. Major insights from analysis
3. Takeaways for domain investors

Let’s get into it!

Data of 2016 to 2021 Brandable Domains

• 2016
• 2017
• 2018
• 2019
• 2020
• 2021

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Raw Data of Brandable Domain Sales

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4 Major Insights From Top Domain Sales

Analyzing the data of brandable domain sales in 2020 helped to solidify some potential trends that we thought might be developing, and provided invaluable information for investors.

Our approach was as follows. We obtained the top sales data from the Namebio database. We then analyzed the data in Microsoft Excel to extract insights. 

This time we pulled from more than just the top 100 to see if the trends continued to hold up among the highest selling domain names.

Let’s jump into it!

1. Marketplace with Highest Sales Numbers ($)

Sedo finishes solidly in first place once again as the marketplace that did the highest number of sales according to revenue among the top brandable domain names. They made around $1.6 million in sales, a touch above the 2019 numbers.

GoDaddy was a big story. Not only were they second once again among marketplaces but the sales numbers almost doubled coming out to a touch above $1 million in sales among the highest selling domains. That is a very noticeable upsurge.

NameJet came in a solid third. Then there was a notable drop followed by DropCatch, Uniregistry, and DomainMarket marketplaces performing all relatively the same. SnapNames and Flippa each register on the top list. 

Uniregistry’s fall from the top marketplace several years ago is startling, especially as they go not only from first to second but keep on falling as other marketplaces continue to gain in popularity among both domain sellers and buyers.

Takeaways:

• Sedo is currently the top option for selling high-value brandable domains
• GoDaddy is strongly cementing itself as the #2 option for high-end domain sales
• Uniregistry’s fall means it’s no longer in the top three for most sellers

2. Marketplace with Most Volume of Sales

2020 was a year where the volume of sales numbers matched up quite well with the revenue numbers. There were no oversized sales that threw off the numbers, and the order for best premium domain marketplaces by volume of sales followed the same order as rankings by revenue.

Sedo came in first with 139 sales of the top domains. GoDaddy followed at 82, and NameJet was third at 47. There was a marked drop-off with DropCatch, Uniregistry, and DomainMarket at least each making double-digit sales.

Takeaways:

• Sedo is the top marketplace for both volume of sales and revenue
• GoDaddy’s growth doesn’t look like a fluke – they are a solid second option to Sedo as a marketplace
• NameJet is a distant third compared to the other marketplaces but has enough activity to be worthwhile

3. Number of Words in Top Branded Domains

A larger look shows that when it comes to the top-end domains sold to startups, the 2-word dominance over the “top sales” list continues. 

Among the 365 in this sampling, 206 (56%) were 2-word domain names. Another 147 (40%) were one-word domain names. 3-word domains were a very distant third with only 12 out of 365.

This expanded list also confirms the trend of four-word or more domain names simply not being in high demand.

Short domain names continue to win the day even while pulling back with larger samples of top-selling domain names. This is a rock-solid trend that domain investors can (and should) take to the bank as continuing.

Takeaways:

• Two-word domains continue to dominate the highest revenue domain name sales, even expanded past the top 100
• One-word domain names remain strong, though clearly in second to two-word domains
• Three-word domains do slightly better in the top 365 versus the top 100, but they are still a very long way behind one and two-word domains

4. How Many Characters in Top Domains?

When taking a larger look at the top brandable domain name sales in 2020, 8-characters emerges as the most popular length in 2020. The always popular 4-character names were tied with 6-characters as the second most popular choice.

The sweet spot was 4 characters to 9 characters, with diminishing returns after that. The returns on domain names that were longer than 10 characters in length plummeted rapidly.

Shorter domains continue to rule the list of the highest-selling domain names. After multiple years of data it seems pretty well established that 4-9 characters are generally very solid, 10 characters is okay, and the dropoff is fairly sharp after that point.

Takeaways:

• 8-character domains were the most popular in 2020
• 4-character domains remain among the most popular
• Anything north of 10 characters is a longshot to hitting the top-selling list

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Final Takeaways for Domain Investors

2020 brought some good data for domain investors looking to continue to improve and hone their investment strategies. What lessons should we take from 2020?

1. Sedo is the best marketplace overall for selling high-value domains to startups with GoDaddy coming in as the most popular alternative.
2. Two-word domains remain the most popular among the most in-demand domain names with one-word domains right behind.
3. Four to nine characters was the sweet spot with 8 characters being the most popular overall followed closely by four.