In the last 15 quarters, there was only 1 quarter (Q4 2016) where .com registration declined. Here are the numbers for .com domains for the last 15 quarters (from Verisign):
| Number Registered (Millions) | Quarter | Increase (%) |
| 130.8 | Q3 2017 | 1.24% |
| 129.2 | Q2 2017 | 0.62% |
| 128.4 | Q1 2017 | 1.18% |
| 126.9 | Q4 2016 | -1.17% |
| 128.4 | Q3 2016 | 0.71% |
| 127.5 | Q2 2016 | 0.71% |
| 126.6 | Q1 2016 | 2.10% |
| 124 | Q4 2015 | 3.25% |
| 120.1 | Q3 2015 | 1.35% |
| 118.5 | Q2 2015 | 0.59% |
| 117.8 | Q1 2015 | 1.90% |
| 115.6 | Q4 2014 | 0.61% |
| 114.9 | Q3 2014 | 1.06% |
| 113.7 | Q2 2014 | 0.44% |
| 113.2 | Q1 2014 | 1.07% |
| 112 | Q4 2013 |
The 4th quarter of 2017 should have ended on a strong note. There are apparently 134 million .com domains registered now. Will be interesting to see the official numbers once Verisign publishes them.
The average increase is about 1% a quarter, which is just astounding given how many domains are already registered. If this pace continues, there should be about 150 million .com domains registered by the end of 2020. How many of these will be short domains? Trick question! The short domains are (nearly) all registered.
Probably we will see the complete (and sticky) buyout of 6 digit .com domains by then (all 1 million of them), as well as a bigger dent in the 5 letter .coms and the 7 digit .coms. Prices for the premium short numerics and letter domains may also continue to rise, we shall see.