Inko (https://inko-lang.org/) uses this approach for its bytecode interpreter. I can't speak about how well it performs compared to an AST interpreter since I never wrote one for Inko, but generally bytecode interpreters should be faster. I also think bytecode interpreters would be easier to optimise, as you're no longer directly tied to the AST of the input language.

If you're curious, you can find Inko's interpreter loop here: https://gitlab.com/inko-lang/inko/blob/master/vm/src/vm/mach...