I don't know about the MA, but unfortunately numbers in FSO are still declining. At the end of 2021 FSO was averaging 120 players. The numbers have been below 90 now. Just prepare yourself Whiskey.
The game experienced a major hiccup before AH3 came out. But numbers in the MA have increased from average of 90-112 when I returned to 130-160 in the last cpl months.
I THINK that decline you mentioned MIGHT be because some return players prefer to fly solo, or their squad is gone.
Quite a few you get players (not all) left and they started families, and about now their kids are now old enough they have more time to fly again, just not full throttle yet.
Had HT not experienced hardships we probably would have had an update. He was working on something when it hit him hard. If I remember right, that was around 21-22. We’ll see.
Everywhere I look I’m seeing return players wanting to come back, and frequently, especially comments on YT vids, the most common is how much fun they had here when they were teenagers. Those are in their late 20s and 30s now.
I don’t have a crystal ball, but I do see some positives. The more who return, the more want to return.
Lately the MA has been a lot of fun, plenty of big battles, much easier to find a fight at prime time. It COULD be they may just not want to break off from that, plus what I mentioned above.
Your wirds are a concern, but we have hope. We are no longer losing numbers.
Would live to see you pop up in the MA. <S>