China ranks last in VPN adoption globally - but it may all be smoke and mirrors

• China has the lowest VPN penetration in the world, says new data
• However, Chinese users continue to access VPNs from other sources
• This contrasts with results from the UAE, where VPNs are more available

A new study from Cybernews on VPN adoption has revealed that China has the lowest VPN penetration rates in the world based on downloads from Apple's App Store and Google Play.

Using a dataset of downloads of the 50 most popular VPN apps from the two digital stores, comprising 106 countries from 2020 to June 2025, the company's research team reported that the strictest online censorship regime is also, surprisingly, the one with the lowest current VPN download activity globally.

In contrast, other authoritarian regimes saw a significant increase in VPN usage, with the UAE reporting an eye-popping 83.52% per-capita adoption in 2024, jumping to the top of the rankings, and five Arab countries placing in the global top 10.

The reason for this apparent disparity? China concentrates on controlling VPN availability, while the UAE zeroes in on regulating user behavior - two very different approaches to achieving censorship.

"Indeed, Google Play is currently unavailable in mainland China, and Apple's Chinese App Store is severely restricted, factors that reduce the number of downloads measured by the report," says Edvardas Gardenis, Head of Public Relations at Cybernews.

Smoke and mirrors

The PR specialist agrees the optics might indeed not match reality for the Great Firewall nation for a few other reasons.

“For example, small VPN companies may not be represented in the dataset, which only takes global providers into account,” he explains.

The research also determined users' locations based on their app store region rather than their physical location, further obscuring a clear picture, as it excludes Chinese users with foreign store accounts.

However, chances are that Chinese citizens are simply using other means to download the best VPN apps.

“A few major providers confirmed that they create specific website domains only for Chinese users,” Gardenis notes. “These are usually a bit goofy, like ‘N0d-vp-xzzzy.xzz’ so they wouldn’t trigger China’s firewall.”

Other common paths include side-loading APKs from unverified and unofficial websites, the use of domestic Android app stores such as Huawei, Tencent, Xiamosi, and downloading desktop clients directly from provider websites.

The increased sophistication of VPN download methods comes in response to Beijing's intensified surveillance strategy, which plans to use AI to identify millions of high-risk individuals using prohibited tools, including VPNs or Telegram - the latter celebrating ten years of being banned in the country this year.

The move is in contrast to the UAE's approach to censorship, where VPNs are largely legal, and it is the activities you'd use them for that are policed.

Nonetheless, the spread of VPN usage in Arab countries remains quite a surprise. “We expected the Arab countries to rank highly, but the usage levels exceeded our expectations,” Gardenis notes.

To put this in context, high-ranking Western countries included America, which snatched the crown for the number of total downloads, with 63.41 million just in 2024, but has a relatively low per capita adoption rate. In Europe, Germany’s adoption increased from 6.94% to 21.36%, one of the fastest climbs among developed markets.

Perhaps less unsurprisingly, Russia and Ukraine both saw significant increases in reported VPN downloads in 2022, with adoption rates surging respectively to 43.20% and 18.9% in the same year, showing a strong correlation with the onset of war.

So what to make of these data overall? Ultimately, one might be tempted to conclude that the Chinese statistics tell us nothing at all for certain. However, if one thing does seem clear, it is just how effectively China has enforced its so-called ‘great firewall in a box’ to prevent easy access to VPN services.

And with security-conscious Chinese citizens being forced into the wilderness to achieve their digital security goals, some might say the importance of VPNs in oppressive regimes has never been stronger.

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