Over the past 12 months, 480.1 million downloads of mobile VPN applications have been registered in the world, which is 54% more than last year. On the
interactive map you can see statistics on countries. For example, Russia - 10.92 million downloads (+ 19%), Ukraine - 6.38 million (−18%), Belarus - 0.49 million (+ 38%), Kazakhstan - 4.1 million (+ 210%, third place in the world in terms of growth).
Key Results
- 75% of all downloads are on the Android platform (358.3 million). Everything else is iOS (121.9 million).
- Largest markets: Indonesia (75.5 million), USA (74.6 million) and India (57 million)
- Fastest growing markets: India (405%), Jordan (387%) and Kazakhstan (210%)
- 84% of downloads are freeware
- Most popular: Turbo VPN (51.3 million installations on Android and iOS, free)
- Most popular paid service: NordVPN (15.5 million installations on Android and iOS)
Introduction
The
2019 Global Mobile VPN Report is the first of its kind research. It includes data from 73 countries. Statistics began to be collected in 2016.
The study shows that the demand for VPN applications from the Apple App Store and Google Play is growing rapidly: the number of downloads has been increasing by more than 50% per year for two consecutive years.
Users all over the world are forced to face new manifestations of digital authoritarianism and are beginning to value their data more. VPN applications are obviously becoming the standard tool for circumventing censorship and protecting privacy.
The report contains data on downloads of VPN applications at the global, regional, national level and for each application for the last 12 months starting in October 2018.
We also studied:
- Largest Mobile VPN Markets
- Correlations between locks and spikes in the number of downloads month to month
- The popularity of free / paid VPNs
- Most Popular Mobile VPN Services
- The fastest growing VPN services
- Top VPNs by Platform and Country
Global download statistics
12-month periods
Each period begins in October and ends in September.
By platform
For a 12-month period from October 2018.
- Android: 358.2 million (74.6%)
- iOS: 121.9 million (25.4%)
Statistics by region
Top 20 countries by download
Note: China is excluded from this report, despite the historical popularity of VPNs in this country.
This is due to the increased unreliability of download data after the removal of VPN applications from the App Store in 2017 and the continued censorship of all Google services, including the Play Store.Below is a list of the countries with the highest number of downloads of mobile VPN applications in 12 months, starting in October 2018. The fastest growing markets, such as Indonesia, India, and Vietnam, are discussed in more detail in the
next section .
In other countries, there was also a strong, but more stable increase in the total number of downloads. In the US and the UK, interest in VPNs is stimulated by the collection by Internet providers of data on page views for both profit and surveillance, as well as network neutrality in the United States.
The UAE, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan live under the strict control of conservative and authoritarian governments.
Meanwhile, Brazil is demonstrating a mixture of media conservatism and a desire to distance itself from U.S. telecommunications services after Snowden's revelations of spying on U.S. intelligence services that appeared in 2013.
Complete list of countries in alphabetical orderTop 10 countries by growth in the number of downloads
The following list is ordered by percentage of downloads on an annualized basis. The period is 12 months from October to September. The absolute results for 2018/19 are indicated in parentheses in parentheses.- India - 405% (57.0 million)
- Jordan - 387% (3.6 million)
- Kazakhstan - 210% (4.1 million)
- Algeria - 205% (4.8 million)
- Vietnam - 140% (5.6 million)
- Indonesia - 111% (75.5 million)
- Nigeria - 107% (5.3 million)
- Egypt - 95% (5.8 million)
- Singapore - 83% (1.9 million)
- South Africa - 82% (1.5 million)
Note: countries with less than 1 million downloads in the last 12 months are excluded from the list.The highest growth was recorded in India, Jordan, Kazakhstan and Algeria. To a large extent, it is due to specific surges in the number of downloads, which we will consider in the
next section .
Some other fast-growing markets have introduced or tightened cybercrime legislation.
In 2019, Vietnam and Singapore passed
new laws on content blocking, requiring technology companies to collect user information and delete inappropriate messages.
Egyptian authorities have
enacted a new cybercrime law in 2018 to
block 34,000 websites linked to an opposition campaign called “Void”. Earlier this year, the campaign collected 250,000 signatures against a constitutional referendum in Egypt. The referendum expanded the powers of President Al-Sisi and extended his term of office until 2030.
Similarly,
targeted attacks against journalists
have increased in Nigeria, and under cybercrime laws, attempts are being made to block publications exposing police brutality, corruption, and clandestine oil blocks in the Niger Delta.
Interestingly, in South Africa, the growth of VPN downloads began after the government
was caught mass surveillance of all communications in violation of its own Law of Regulation of Interception of Communications Act of 2002 (RICA) and the National Security Act of 1994 (National Security Act of 1994, NSIA). The government justified the need for enhanced oversight by national security interests, but the Supreme Court
ruled the state’s activities illegal .
Among countries with fewer downloads but also experiencing significant growth over the previous year:
Zimbabwe Over 320,000 VPN application downloads have been recorded over the past 12 months, an increase of 250% compared to the previous year coincided with a suppression of access to social networks in January 2019 in response to riots caused by a 150% jump in fuel prices.
The government also moved on to VPN locks that citizens used to circumvent restrictions. Since the start of the blocking, the number of VPN searches has grown by more than 850%.
Lebanon Over the past 12 months, almost 995,000 downloads of VPN applications have been registered, which is 119% more than a year earlier. Over the same period, there has been a surge in arrests of citizens, activists and journalists related to online publications, including those related to LGBTQ content. The popular LGBTQ Grindr app
was blocked in January 2019.
In addition, 50 sites targeted at adult entertainment, illegal gambling and content related to Israel were blocked. A law has also been enacted giving security officials unrestricted access to all telecommunications metadata.
Complete list of countries in alphabetical orderVPN surge in popularity
Monthly analysis of download data revealed frequent surges in VPN popularity around the world. Many of these surges occurred in response to Internet blocking, when local Internet users sought to circumvent restrictions. Some noticeable spikes:
October-December 2018, India . An increase of 66% on average for three consecutive months. Only in 2018, India experienced
134 Internet disconnections , and almost always they were aimed at mobile access. This was done in response to various incidents: civil conflicts, local elections, the killing of politicians by militant separatists, as well as to control the flow of information about the ongoing unrest in the disputed Kashmir region. In addition, the surge in VPN popularity can be explained by the
blocking of 827 adult sites in October, which is confirmed by the surge in VPN-related searches within a month after the ban.
February 2019, Algeria . A 73% increase in downloads is likely due to a disconnection from the Internet during protests against President Abdel Aziz Boutefliki, who wants to run for the fifth consecutive term.
February 2019, South Korea . A 75% jump after
blacklisting 895 sites . Soon this was followed by an increase in mass monitoring of citizens by the government.
May 2019, Indonesia . A surge of 126% due to bandwidth regulation, a slowdown in speed to
prevent the upload of videos and photos to Twitter and other social media platforms after the escalation of protests in the elections.
May-June 2019, Kazakhstan . An increase of 111% as a result of several short-term blockages of social networks and a brief complete disconnection of the Internet, associated with unrest in the national elections. Another 93% surge in June is likely due to ongoing protests and the forced installation of
the government’s root certificate , which turned out to be used for mass surveillance.
June 2019, Algeria . Download growth of 263% after blocking social networks
to prevent cheating on school exams . Internet crashes also occurred due to ongoing political protests when the former Prime Minister of Algeria and the Minister of Finance appeared in court.
July 2019, Jordan . 676% increase in pickups as a result of
disputes over the Jinn television show , heavily promoted as the first Arab Netflix series. Jordan's conservative government forced Netflix to block the show for local viewers. This act of censorship took place against the backdrop of increased censorship on the Internet due to growing unrest in the country.
Free and Paid VPNs
Free VPNs are still much more popular than paid ones. They account for more than 80% of installations.
- Free downloads as a percentage of the total number of downloads in the world: 84.3%
- By region:
- Asia Pacific and Japan: 89.8%
- Europe: 77.2%
- Latin America: 90.3%
- Middle East and Africa: 91.0%
- North America: 68.1%
The following diagrams show the ratio of free and paid VPN downloads around the world, then the distribution of all free and paid downloads by region.
Most Popular Mobile VPNs
The most popular services (in total for all platforms and application versions) and the number of downloads for 12 months, since October 2018.The fastest growing VPN applications
The following table shows ten VPN applications with the maximum growth in the number of downloads over a 12-month period, starting in October 2018, compared to the previous period.Most notably, there are no known brands among these free VPNs. Nevertheless, some of these relatively new VPNs managed to get closer to the top 10 in the total number of downloads over the past 12 months on their platforms: VPN - Super Unlimited (10.5 million, Android), Solo VPN (8.5 million, Android ), Best Ultimate VPN (6.2 million, iOS).
To avoid distortion of the results, the table excludes free applications with less than 1 million downloads and paid applications with less than 250 thousand.Accompanying Data
This section contains data on mobile VPN downloads in 2018/19:
- Downloads by country (all countries, in alphabetical order)
- Top 20 VPN Apps for Android
- Top 20 VPN Apps for iOS
- The fastest growing free VPN apps
- The fastest growing paid VPN applications
- Top 20 Mobile VPN Applications in the USA
- Top 20 Mobile VPN Applications in the UK
- Top 20 Mobile VPN Applications in Australia
- Top 20 Mobile VPN Applications in Canada
- Top 20 Mobile VPN Applications in Indonesia
- Top 20 Mobile VPN Applications in India
- Top 20 Mobile VPN Applications in Brazil
Country Downloads
The following table provides data for each country. “Downloads” is the number of times a VPN application has been downloaded in each country over a 12-month period starting in October 2018. The percentage of free VPNs out of the total is indicated.Top 20 VPN Apps for Android
Top 20 VPN Apps for iOS
The fastest growing free VPN apps
To avoid distortion, only applications with downloads of more than 1 million from October 2018 to September 2019 are included.
The fastest growing paid VPN applications
To avoid distortion, only applications with downloads of more than 250 thousand from October 2018 to September 2019 are included.
Top 20 Mobile VPN Applications in the USA
Top 20 Mobile VPN Applications in the UK
Top 20 Mobile VPN Applications in Australia
Top 20 Mobile VPN Applications in Canada
Top 20 Mobile VPN Applications in Indonesia
Top 20 Mobile VPN Applications in India
Top 20 Mobile VPN Applications in Brazil
Methodology
We analyzed all VPN applications in the Google Play and Apple App Store catalogs in several regions, with a total of 293 unique applications. They were considered unique based on identifiers in their respective directories.
Application information and statistics are sourced from the Apple App Store, Google Play, and
App Tweak . Information from 73 countries has been collected since 2016.
Applications were considered “free” if a fully functional VPN service was offered without requesting credit card information, including any freemium services that meet this definition.
Download statistics for the 250 most popular applications are published
in the Google Sheet and
in PDF .