USA vs Turkey is a chance for the USMNT to really flex their muscles, seeing as they’re through to the Round of 32 regardless of the result. However, even if you’ve got a solid broadband connection at home, there’s no guarantee of a smooth stream. ISPs routinely throttle bandwidth when they detect heavy streaming activity, and with millions of fans tuning in simultaneously, the risk of a buffering-plagued match is very real.
The best VPNs tackle this by making your traffic unreadable to your ISP. Without knowing what you’re doing, it can’t make the decision to slow you down – so instead of throttling your stream mid-match, it simply lets your connection run at full tilt.
Right now, Norton VPN sits at the top of our best streaming VPN rankings, and a compelling World Cup deal makes it particularly well-timed for anyone wanting a buffer-free tournament.
How does Norton VPN compare to other top VPNs?
When it comes to sheer breadth, NordVPN is hard to beat. Its network spans more than 9,000 servers across 149 countries, and in our speed tests it hit over 1,249 Mbps locally – figures that put it ahead of most of the competition. That firepower does come at a cost, though. NordVPN starts at $3.49 per month, and that requires you to commit for two years. What’s more, it comes with only a 30-day money-back guarantee, compared to Norton’s 60-day window.
Surfshark undercuts both on price, with two-year plans coming in at just $1.99 per month – and unlike Norton, it places no cap on device connections, making it an appealing option for households with a lot of hardware. Speed-wise it’s no slouch either, ranking among the fastest VPNs we’ve tested. Where it falls short is consistency: in our streaming tests, it has occasionally failed to unblock certain Netflix regions that Norton handles without issue.
For throttling specifically, what matters most is that your VPN can reliably access streaming sites and mask your traffic from your ISP – and that’s precisely where Norton’s streaming credentials count most. Add in the 60-day money-back guarantee, which is double the industry standard and comfortably covers the entire tournament, and the choice is easy.
NordVPN and Surfshark are both worth considering once the final whistle blows on the group stage, but if a buffer-free World Cup is the goal, Norton is the one to back.
We test and review VPN services in the context of legal recreational uses. For example: 1. Accessing a service from another country (subject to the terms and conditions of that service). 2. Protecting your online security and strengthening your online privacy when abroad. We do not support or condone the illegal or malicious use of VPN services. Consuming pirated content that is paid-for is neither endorsed nor approved by Future Publishing.
