The decline is real

Thanks for posting the link--otherwise people would have missed that you started your time frame right at a gigantic spike where the estimated number of players nearly doubled. 

Would be interesting to see the actual long-term data too, instead of just a one year window.

What caused that summer spike?  I see my fellow android-users didn't follow me on a month's boycott in November....

Well, May is the SW anniversary...I don't remember if they were doing any special offers or anything. It was maybe when Mace came out. Other people will remember better. I think I came back from my four month break around June or July.

It's part of the reason why I'd like to see multi-year data...is there always a spike around this time, perhaps as kids get out of school? But I definitely think the rapid decline immediately after is just expected attrition of new players. 

It's also hard to tell just from aggregate data how many accounts are alts and what the behavior is like for people dropping engagement on those.

What part of "instead of just a one year window." don't you understand?

The YoY is what should be looked at. 2.6m to 2.1m is a big difference,  close to 20% total players. Very sad. But, Eras are boring and that was the big sell recently. Conquest units are the most fun usually and thats 3 mo the of waiting. I cant even pre-mod an Era unit... its new, im hoping for improvements. I really want the game to be more successful 

I wouldnt look at May or November as a base.