Citation needed.. Luclin and POP saw rise in population.

Speaking from my own personal experience, almost all of my friends in game left to go play Dark Age of Camelot which was not representative of the failure of Luclin but more just wanting something new. Most of us had played a ridiculous number of hours for 3+ years and were ready to move on. Some of us came back to play Luclin and PoP, but EQ never felt the same again, the magic was gone forever.