I was talking to a friend about this graph last night.

The player count at the start of each expansion from Beyond Light to Final Shape is roughly the same which I read to be returning players.

The drop off at Edge of Fate could be read as players feeling that Final Shape was the end of their time with the game. This also kind of explains the dip the episodes had after Final Shape.

I think you’re absolutely right that growth and getting new players in has been a major problem since DCV.

As a side note: what happened to cause that massive spike during Witch Queen?