I definitely am seeing a slow dying off of the game. I was in a squad sometime within the last 2 weeks and kept bumping into the same 10 or so twin squads. Aside from that, the search times were really long and timed out quite a lot. Let's be honest here, the game has reached the end of its run now, once you're Level 50, S+ and got all the weapons and gear there's no incentive to keep playing. Sure you can level all the gear or go for S+99 but outside of the competitive community who will go for that? I don't know whether I'll still keep playing, but Splatfest finishing is not affecting my decision in the slightest. Solo queue is not fun and squads, whilst fun, don't really do much other than to play ranked without your rank changing as an S/S+ player. The fact that are no more maps coming, no more Sheldon's Picks (they would have come in 2.9.0) and no more ranked modes or changes to rank means the game has reached its climax, no more changes, no more exciting updates, and no more freshness (if you will). It had a good run, and it will probably survive another year or 2, but after that, only the competitive will remain, and by then Splatoon 2 will be very much on the cards for the NX. I'm going to keep playing until I've finally had enough of the game, and I'm aiming to max the Turf on the Soda and get better at other weapons before I eventually stop.