Just because people still log in to grind dailies and world quests doesn’t mean the game has the same presence in pop culture it used to. I remember seeing commercials with Ozzy for wotlk, people would talk about the game, you’d see references to it, there was a south park episode about it. It’s just not that relevant or popular anymore.
Commercials weren’t the only example I listed.
I consume as much media as anyone, a lot of gaming content, and I don’t recall seeing a single WoW ad in years, not on websites, youtube, or streaming, Maybe you see those ads because you play WoW or other mmos. I haven’t heard any streamers talking about it, no articles or memes outside of dedicated communities.
I’m not saying those things dont exist. I’m just saying, as a general consumer of gaming media, it really doesn’t come up nearly as often as it used to. It’s more niche now, less mainstream. Which, unfortunately, means the player base is less dynamic.