There are still plenty of people playing, just not as much as in it's prime.
I never came back to WoW, cancelled cold turkey well over a year ago and tried to get that part of my life back. I have to admit I was tempted for about 3 tenth of a second to come back when I heard about the new non grind honor system but then I snapped out of it and realised that means 98***37; of the game now is grinding instead of 100%