ICANN publishes two counts of its 2026 round, and they do not agree. Its statistics page announces 481 applicants and 1,615 applications. Its lists, the ones this site is built on, hold 480 applicants and 1,614 applications.
The statistics page: 1,615
The page was generated on 7 October 2026 at 15:41 UTC and has not been regenerated since; its data reads generatedAt: 2026-10-07T15:41:25Z. It shows 1,615 applications, all of them Active, with not one Withdrawn, On Hold or Terminated, and 481 applicants, 156 of them in the Asia/Australia/Pacific region.
It also says how it counts replacement strings:
Applications for which the applicant has designated a replacement string will have two application records on the Applications tab during the period between Reveal Day and String Confirmation Day but count as one application in the statistics below.
The lists: 1,614
We opened every list ICANN publishes for the round:
- The export of 7 October, 18:20 UTC, the file this site is built on: 2,783 rows. 1,169 are replacement strings; the other 1,614 are applications. 480 applicant names, 155 of them in Asia/Australia/Pacific.
- The export of 9 October, 13:14 UTC: byte for byte the same file as the one of 7 October.
- The Applications tab, read through the API behind it on 9 October, 28 pages: 2,783 records, all distinct. Same 1,614 applications, same 480 applicants.
- The Reveal Day contention sets: 891 applications in 263 sets. All 891 are in the list.
The replacement strings do not explain the gap. Each of the 1,169 replacement records carries the ID of an application with -R appended; every one of them points to an application that is in the file, and no application has more than one. Counted ICANN's way, the list still holds 1,614.
One applicant, one application, one region
The two counts differ in the same way on three lines: one applicant, one application, and one applicant in Asia/Australia/Pacific, 156 against 155. The simplest explanation fits in a sentence: an applicant from that region filed a single application, which the statistics count and no list shows. Which applicant, for which string, and why it is missing: nothing published allows us to say.
Between 15:41 and 18:20
On 7 October, the filings are published between 15:21 and 15:38 UTC. The statistics are generated three minutes after the last of them. The earliest export we hold is from 18:20 UTC. If the 1,615th application ever appeared in a public list, it was within those two hours and thirty-nine minutes, and we hold no capture of it.
What this piece does not say
It does not say that ICANN made a mistake, nor that an application was withheld or withdrawn: the statistics count no withdrawal, and nothing published says more. Only ICANN can tell which of the two figures describes the round. Until it does, this site keeps 1,614 and 480, the applications anyone can open and read.
Sources
- ICANN APS, Application Statistics, generated 7 October 2026 at 15:41 UTC, read on 9 October 2026.
- ICANN APS, applications export, 7 October 2026 at 18:20 UTC and 9 October 2026 at 13:14 UTC.
- ICANN APS, Applications tab, all records, read on 9 October 2026.
- ICANN, Reveal Day contention sets, 7 October 2026.
- The figures of this site: data.