I haven't looked at the stats to see how much we have increased or reduced in terms of newbies joining the forum. Bitcointalk social media pages online aren't really active that could be a reason for a decline. Some of the old members who were here from day one aren't posting much anymore. With the Bitcointalk Show on YouTube I'm sure we will be blowing waves soon. I just watched the second episode. I'm eager to see what's next
Let's see what has changed from July 2021 to now. You can compare this data from bpip.org to find out some.
There has been an increase in the number of users who registered their accounts on the forum from July 18, 2021 to today where there have been around 75,244 new profiles registered since then. Meanwhile, the active user base in the last 3 months has decreased from 122,470 in July 2021 to 93,906 users. Decreasing the base like this depends on the user's own interest in using the forum, they can be active at any time which affects the number without or doing activities. I think the addition of new users can be expected to continue to happen with or without bitcointalk social media like youtube.