Pretty much every non-techy person I know under the age of about 50 uses VPNs for accessing regionally restricted streaming TV and sports[0] content, and getting around geoblocks (on US news sites that won't serve to Europe due to GDPR, trading/gambling sites, etc.).
I am pretty sure the sheer quantity of VPN ads on YT are also good evidence that they work and people are signing up. It wouldn't make sense to scale up a marketing approach to those levels unless earlier, smaller campaigns had positive returns.
[0] It's worth calling out explicitly the crazy lengths people will go to to both (a) find a free stream of a sports match; and (b) find a way to watch a match when they're travelling and can't access whatever service they usually watch it on.
I am pretty sure the sheer quantity of VPN ads on YT are also good evidence that they work and people are signing up. It wouldn't make sense to scale up a marketing approach to those levels unless earlier, smaller campaigns had positive returns.
[0] It's worth calling out explicitly the crazy lengths people will go to to both (a) find a free stream of a sports match; and (b) find a way to watch a match when they're travelling and can't access whatever service they usually watch it on.