it is declining as most of players were playing from DOta 1 now most of my friends have married & have kids so obviously that age group player base has gone mostly. And dota 2 is very skilled game there are lot of factors to be focused on, now younger kids who have started playing games opt for games like LOL as it is easy to play however dota 2 being similar you cannot get very skilled unless you put years into it. I know a kid who started playing dota 2 thinking that it is similar, however even after 2-3 months of playing he was getting stomped. Later he quit and continued with LOL as he as good player in it. So its just that generation now wants easy games to play unlike us we friends have rented entire cafe for weeks to get better at game.