From the past 6 years that I have played the numbers have gone down a little from when I first played, granted I did quit the server for three years so I don't know how it was when I wasn't there for those 3 years, but when I came back this year numbers were down when I came back. I think the amount of players we have now though is pretty good, it's not too many but it's also still a good amount of people. That's nice since everyone that plays regularly knows each other for the most part and it makes the community more enjoyable to be around in my opinion.
I'm pretty new to the server but in the time I've been here, I have never seen Factions with less than a full tab. That's pretty impressive for a 10-year old game.