Just my opinion, but I could be wrong... free poker games attract everyone, but when there is a buy-in not everyone will play it. There's a big difference, and maybe you should think about organizing some real poker games with buy-in, and then we will see how many "poker players" will join!
Of course there is a big difference between freeroll and buy-in poker tourney, simply because the number of freerollers is much bigger than the number of poker players who want to spend their money to enter a buy-in tournament.
It has been proven in many poker sites especially in this crypto gambling industry, but as far as I can see there is a bit difference when it comes to fiat poker industry especially offline poker tournament.
Not quite sure why there is difference between crypto and fiat poker site, I can say this because there are many local poker sites for my country and some of them is not even providing freerolls but their buy-in tournaments as well as cash table are always full with players.