How many people are REALLY still playing Maplestory?

I wouldn't phrase it as denial, I'm just looking for information that I don't have.
If the side that enjoys the story is in the minority of maplestory, what's the majority? Botters? Professional players that grind all day?

With the decline, you can't assume players decided to hate the game. Maybe the found something better. Grand Chase is certainly fun, albiet a bit PvP centered sadly, but the story is nice there too. Elsword just added in Add over here and he's a wonderful treasure, so I certainly play those lately, but I did stick around for Shade. (And I plan on starting aura kingdom up here soon too.) That and there are plenty of times where I just choose to do work instead of playing games. So my number isn't even on the graph for Maplestory most of the time, but that doesn't mean I don't enjoy it. (And I know plenty of people who are like this.)

SO your argument is that players have "hiatus'", but the population meter would essentially reflect exponential increases during these huge releases, yet it doesn't break 25k even with a new class released or even hot time. So your point is still not valid.