Maplestory is not dying, it is already deceased

Even though the game has been making consistent improvements, there was (still is?) an undeniable player bleed in GMS. I tried to pinpoint the cause but the best I can figure is that Global Maple is seen as a niche game or maybe it was like a fad. Maple keeps getting better but whatever it was that used to attract players to it in GMS appears to be different than from where the game is headed. My question is do you think the decline is part of the normal life cycle for Maple, could it be due to competition from other games or could there have been something that Nexon NA could have done differently?

I believe it's both, The game is old, people do get bored of it, there's a lot to do but it takes me personally to run all bosses per day like 30 minutes (With Queue timers, switching maps etc) which I am ok with, I used to take an awful time and the game let me and friends progress to the point where I can do this, There's a good amount of content it just depends if you like grinding at Heaven/World tree for 2 hours a day or something or try and practice CRA/Etc when you're weaker, Merch which can involve you talking with others, Browsing auction etc.

KMS had a bleed, a few years back as well, but that's why I've said both, League became huge in PC Bangs and stole seats easily, Sudden attack exists and so on, NA has other great games and MMORPGs which people in Korea don't really play and that's fine and people from NA moved from GMS to those, CS:GO - LOL - Overwatch - ToS just a few examples, Heck how many times have I met people who played gms and lol at the same time and later on to just LoL.

Nexon NA does a lot of pineapples up and that doesn't help, same goes for KR, but something is holding KMS alive despite the competition and sometimes dumb stuff that can happen, Nexon KR has a huge difference from NA in one regard, hacking and botting though, It's so strict and I wish Nexon NA could do something about it, I think it would help a bit.

I keep talking about KMS because people are still enjoying it so I don't like to see "MS is dead" as it is not true, there are plenty of people who still enjoy it.
I guess Koreans love grinding and RNG more than NA players (Best NX is always RNG, Golden apples [Gacha], Master label, Potential and so on).
I think plenty of NA players still enjoy it as well, it does get boring but that's typical for any game, especially a 10+ years old game, hell look at WoW now that is a real RIP in my book.

It's not helping that the game has a huge trouble of attracting newer people as well, it is a niche game there's nothing to expect from it, but it's still fun and I am looking forward, I rather play it for 1 hour than other games nowdays and chat in later hours though.
I mean KMS2 is pretty much a failure whilst a 13 year old game is still up there, you know?