When I had last come back around early 2019, the Melee was running around 185 players most weeknights.
The loss rate curve is definitely shallowing. All those who would be sensitive to lack of new development or the lure of the competition have already left. The remaining players are mainly here for the social connections. As long as their friends keep showing up to chat on chan200, they will too. They might complain about no new planes or features, but obviously that is not sufficient cause for them to close their accounts.
The main threat to AH would be HT's health. He is no spring chicken either. And the (probably narrow) age range of the remaining players means that when they start hitting their expiration date, many will be hitting it at the same time. There is no new blood to smooth out the demographic trend. Probably there are very few "new" players at all. Just an occasional previous player coming back again for a while. But they are probably in the same age cohort as the rest and will hit their expiration date at the same time.
$0.02.
I have recently thought of HiTech's health and know he is several years older than me... but having talked with Dale multiple times over the last 2 years..I find that he seems to be doing better than some of us and knowing that Aces High is his Labor of love..I see him keeping with AH as long as he can...or can afford to stay in the black and out of the red, financially....
Just my thoughts on the subject. (CptTrips post pretty much says it all though)
<S >
TC
