Eve had a good long run of subscriber growth - as long or longer than any MMO. While it was growing, they touted the growth. When it started its inevitable decline, they shut up and started hiding the numbers. There's a good reason for doing that. People leaving can have a snowball effect if it's too easy to see and quantify.

Population is noticeably down, which is why these threads keep popping up here, and on reddit, TMC, etc.

No reason to panic. Eve will likely go on for many years, but it'll go on as a mature game, where what goes on in game is less and less "emergent", and more predictable. EQ1 is still chugging along with its die-hard players. It's just not growing or attracting new players anymore.

The engine of growth for a game is either its "stickiness" or ability to retain players and get players to refer others, or it's paid growth. As with many mature products, CCP has had to rely on "paid" growth (advertising) more and more to attract new players these last few years, as retention and referral have declined.

Nothing stays "hot" forever folks. I wouldn't be surprised to see Eve get sold off to an investor group in the next year or so, as Sony did with SOE. Since it's CCP's only viable property these days, it'd be prudent for them to start thinking exit strategy.