How many people are REALLY still playing Maplestory?

if there were PLENTY of new players the population wouldn't DROP.

That doesn't prove it's not attracting a large amount of new players. All it proves is that the number of people leaving is greater than the number of people joining.

I can't really speak for Nexon since I can't play games published by them, but it does seem that they aren't doing a very good job.