No reason for panic, I came here through the Hattrick announcement, there were 17000 players that moment.
A substantial number of players that started playing through the HT advertising is now turning into bots, which is normal because you can't convince 100% of the new players to stay.
There are a lot more people playing in comparison to a couple of months earlier even though the number of teams seems a bit stable at the moment.
Climbing the BB-mountain. Destination: the top.