A good example is when and after chipmixer was seized and shut down, mixers weren't that much before then, infact, I think it probably wont be up to ten mixers that existed then, but immediately after chipmixer was seized and taken down, mixers started popping up like gambling casinos, though not every one of them are legit, but then, mixers have become more popular than they were in the past before the government took chipmixer down.
If I remember correctly, a little over 1,900 Bitcoins were seized during the seizing of CM. Sounds like serious money, maybe that woke up others to try their hand at this business. It seems to be quite a profitable branch of the crypto industry.
1900 bitcoins at the current price of bitcoin which is $54,300 is approximately $110,960,000, this doesn't sound like serious money,
It's serious money bud, with this amount of money in my pocket, I never will know what poverty smells like..
So, for sure, running a bitcoin mixer never used to seem to me like a serious business that involved a lot of money, but the experience so far has proven otherwise.
Anyways, it's a profitable business but one that is a kind of risky, and the risk is making sure you don't get to popular to attract the attention of the government.