Consumers shopping for digital protection are shifting their priorities. G2A.COM, a marketplace serving more than 35 million users across 180 countries, has recorded a 35% year-on-year increase in orders for antivirus and security software, a rate of growth that now exceeds demand for VPN subscriptions. The figures, released during Cybersecurity Awareness Month, point to a broader change in how everyday users think about protecting themselves online.
From Privacy Tools to Layered Defense
For much of the past decade, VPNs dominated consumer conversations about digital safety, prized for encrypting traffic and masking location data. That category remains the larger of the two on G2A.COM, but its share of cybersecurity-related orders is shrinking relative to antivirus and security software, which now account for 43% of such purchases, up from 39% in the same period last year. Overall orders across cybersecurity products rose by almost a quarter. Adrian Podkaminer, Chief Information Security Officer at G2A.COM, described the pattern as a move away from privacy-first protection toward a more layered approach, reflecting how people now operate across multiple devices, accounts and services that each carry distinct risks.
The distinction matters technically. A VPN encrypts the connection between a device and the internet, shielding traffic from interception on untrusted networks and obscuring an IP address. It does little, however, to stop malware already present on a device, block a phishing attempt, or detect a compromised file. Antivirus and endpoint security tools are built for that purpose, scanning for malicious code, flagging suspicious behavior and quarantining threats before they spread. As threats diversify, relying on a single category of protection leaves gaps.
A Threat Landscape That Keeps Evolving
The timing of this shift lines up with warnings from official bodies. The European Union Agency for Cybersecurity, in its Threat Landscape 2026 assessment, identifies ransomware as the most damaging category of cyber incident in the near term, alongside continued reliance on social engineering tactics that exploit human trust rather than technical vulnerabilities. Phishing emails, fraudulent login prompts and fake payment requests remain effective precisely because they target behavior, not infrastructure. That reality helps explain why consumers are increasingly drawn to tools offering real-time detection and device-level protection, rather than connection privacy alone.
Who Is Responsible for Security?
G2A.COM's data also touches on a question that shapes consumer behavior as much as any technical feature: who should be accountable when something goes wrong. A separate survey conducted by G2A.COM with Juniper Research, covering 9,000 consumers across nine countries, found that around half of respondents consider e-commerce platforms primarily responsible for security, while roughly a third point to banks and payment providers, and one in five place the responsibility on themselves. That distribution suggests many consumers view protection as a shared obligation rather than a personal one, even as they invest more in their own security tools.
On the marketplace side, G2A.COM points to its own compliance measures, including exclusive partnerships with verified business sellers and the use of Know Your Customer, Know Your Business and Anti-Money Laundering checks, reinforced by AI-based fraud detection and ongoing monitoring. These processes are presented as part of the platform's contribution to the shared responsibility consumers expect.
Practical Steps Beyond the Purchase
Buying security software is only part of the equation. G2A.COM is using Cybersecurity Awareness Month to highlight habits that complement any tool:
- Use strong, unique passwords and enable multi-factor authentication on email, shopping and payment accounts.
- Install operating system, browser and application updates as soon as they become available.
- Treat unexpected login requests, downloads or urgent payment messages with caution, and go directly to official websites or apps rather than following links.
- Understand exactly what a security product covers, including device compatibility and subscription renewal terms, before relying on it.
Taken together, the data suggests that consumers are not abandoning privacy tools but expanding their defenses around them. As digital life spreads across more devices and services, security increasingly depends on combinations of safeguards working in concert, rather than any single product carrying the full weight of protection.