FFXIV population decline continues

[Exmo]

Comparison of populations for December going back to 2014:

Comparisons of populations for each X.15 patch going back to 2014:


My reason for making these is to give a sense of if it has fluctuated this much at comparable months or patches.

There are some obvious possible reasons it spiked so high before and returned to how it was: Covid, and the game going viral. Sure, people are quick to blame the content and issues they have, but objectively those were factors that caused spikes around that time.

This is the long and the short of it. Anyone who ignores the real world context here is just trying to sell you something.