Trivia 4 of 30
What is the most expensive domain name ever purchased?
Voice.com was purchased back in 2019 for the astronomical sum of $30 million dollars. What is it? According to its About Us section, the company is “a team of technologists, artists and curators using the transformative power of NFTs to make digital art collectable.”
As of this writing, the two most expensive NFTs on the site are listed for $5,000. Ten percent seems to be the going rate for the creator’s share of all pieces. It also appears that exactly zero NFTs have actually been sold via Voice.com as of December 2022 (if we can trust the site’s “sold” filter).
Other top domains
The price paid for Voice.com is exactly double the cost of the next most expensive domain ever purchased, which is NFTS.com, purchased for $15 million in 2022. Unlike Voice.com, NFTS.com is currently being held for resale (as of January 2023), brokered by a company called Domainer.com. Both domains appear to be bullish on the NFT front, to say the least.
Note that not all sale prices for domain names are publicly disclosed. So, as far as we know, $30 million is still the most expensive of all time.
The top 10 most expensive domain names of all time are:
| Rank | Domain | Price | Year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | voice.com | $30,000,000.00 | 2019 |
| 2. | nfts.com | $15,000,000.00 | 2022 |
| 3. | sex.com | $14,000,000.00 | 2005 |
| 4. | sex.com | $13,000,000.00 | 2010 |
| 5. | connect.com | $10,000,000.00 | 2022 |
| 6. | fund.com | $9,999,950.00 | 2008 |
| 7. | porn.com | $9,500,000.00 | 2007 |
| 8. | porno.com | $8,888,888.00 | 2015 |
| 9. | fb.com | $8,500,000.00 | 2010 |
| 10. | healthinsurance.com | $8,133,000.00 | 2019 |
| 11. | we.com | $8,000,000.00 | 2015 |
Source: https://namebio.com
You may have noticed that the “Top 10” table above actually lists contains 11 rows. This is because the domain name “sex.com” claims two of the top spots. It was sold for $14 million in 2005, and again for $13 million in 2010. Not all domain names increase in value, it seems.
As for the top domains by year, the most expensive purchased for each of the past ten years are:
| Year | Domain | Price |
|---|---|---|
| 2022 | nfts.com | $15,000,000.00 |
| 2021 | av.com | $4,172,894.0 |
| 2020 | christmas.com | $3,150,000.00 |
| 2019 | voice.com | $30,000,000.00 |
| 2018 | ice.com | $3,500,000.00 |
| 2017 | fly.com | $2,890,000.00 |
| 2016 | hg.com | $3,770,000.00 |
| 2015 | porno.com | $8,888,888.00 |
| 2014 | z.com | $6,784,000.00 |
| 2013 | ig.com | $4,700,000.00 |
| 2012 | investing.com | $2,450,000.00 |
Source: https://namebio.com
Scatterplot showing most expensive domain purchases since 2003.
Line graph showing the average price of the top 100 most expensive domains by year.
