The player base for indie mmo’s aren’t low by any means… though the number dwindles compared to a playerbase like tf2’s. While some games are completely free to play, most use a pay wall, p2p, or micro transaction system. Realm falls into the latter, albeit fairly.
Hmmm realm’s playerbase is pretty sizable actually. About 83381, and if we grandiosely subtract an estimation of the bots, we’re left with about 77,000 active players. I take back my earlier statement… tf2’s average player count is between 56,000 and 97,000… I really underestimated realm’s playerbase!