New data shows a surge in users trying to get around paywalls — here’s what it means for publishers and how Admiral helps protect premium content and revenue.
Paywalls are growing — but so are the efforts to get around them.
Google Trends data shows a steady and significant rise in searches related to “paywalls.” But dig a little deeper, and the intent behind those searches becomes clear: users aren’t looking to understand how paywalls work — they’re looking to bypass them.
Searches for phrases like:
- “bypass paywall”
- “how to get around paywall”
- “12 ft ladder paywall”
- “archive.today paywall”
- “browser extension paywall block”
…have all increased dramatically over the last 2–3 years.
In fact, interest in “bypass paywall” has doubled since 2021, and services designed specifically to remove paywalls have seen viral surges — despite being legally and ethically questionable.
Screenshot: Rising Queries in Google Trends related to the term "paywall" -
The impact on publishers: More traffic, less revenue
The paywall removal trend has a direct impact on media publishers:
- Lost subscription revenue: Each bypassed paywall is a missed conversion opportunity.
- Undermined content value: Readers consuming premium content for free erodes the perceived value of that content.
- Skewed analytics: Publishers may see high traffic numbers but struggle to explain poor conversion performance.
For digital newsrooms, magazine publishers, and premium content creators who rely on subscriptions or memberships, this circumvention isn’t just a nuisance — it’s a threat to their business model.
How they do it: Bypassing made easy
Paywall circumvention uses a mix of methods, including:
- VPNs and private browsing
- Browser extensions that block paywalls or scripts
- Services like 12ft.io, who mimic search engine crawlers and block javascript
These tools exploit the client-side nature of many paywall implementations — meaning the logic lives in the browser, where it’s vulnerable.
How Admiral helps: Server-Side Detection and Protection
Admiral’s Protect solution is built specifically to stop this kind of abuse.
- Server-side paywall detection: Instead of relying solely on client-side scripts that can be bypassed or blocked, Admiral uses server-side logic to detect and respond to known circumvention methods, ensuring your paywall stays intact.
- Blocker-aware technology: Whether it’s ad blockers or paywall blockers, Admiral can detect visitors running these tools, and deliver an appropriate message or action — like requiring registration, authentication, offering alternative ways the visitor can support the site, or blocking access entirely.
- Integrated with your journey: With Admiral’s unified Visitor Relationship Management (VRM) platform, publishers can convert, recover, or monetize every visitor — even those trying to sneak in the side door.
- Value-exchange options: Not every visitor will disable their adblocker, and that’s okay. Admiral offers alternative ways for users to support your site, including email sign-ups, social follows, or even ad-free subscriptions — all within the same engagement flow.
- Smart journeys for better yield: Admiral helps publishers go beyond basic paywall protection. Using intelligent visitor journeys, targeting rules, and A/B testing, Admiral continuously optimizes conversion and recovery rates — with clients seeing 2x to 9x improvement in recovered revenue.
Read more about Admiral Protect
Proven results for publishers like CBS Sports, Mediaite, and NYPost:
By deploying Admiral’s blocker detection and revenue modules, Mediaite reduced its average adblock rate by 45% and recovered 52% of adblock revenue — all while growing new subscription revenue with Admiral Transact paywall and subscription solution. Mediaite Case study.
Additionally, large digital sites using Admiral detection, such as the New York Post, CNBC, and CBS Sports, have seen blocked pageview recovery rates grow to 70%-90%, and have recovered over millions in revenue each.
Why this matters now
With generative AI scraping the web for content and increasing numbers of users looking to freeload instead of pay, the pressure on digital publishers has never been higher. It’s not just about ads anymore — it’s about protecting premium content, supporting journalists, and making subscriptions and site monetization work.
Admiral gives publishers the tools to do exactly that. Let’s protect the value of your content — together.
Whether you want to protect paywalled journalism, monetize adblock users, or build long-term reader relationships — Admiral’s got a solution to match.
Contact Admiral today to learn how Protect can stop paywall bypassing and recover lost revenue.
