Why is Planetside 2 losing so many players?

Personally I've cut down my hours a LOT on Matterson. Logging on and seeing 45%+ VS to ~20-25% TR is not fun.

Good observation! The alarming thing about PS2 is that the moment they are nerfing an obviously overpowered weapon system they have already introduced a new one. This game is not balanced for the exact reason that you have pointed out. There is method behind the madness. Players get lured into paying money for the ability to exploit overpowered weapons for a couple of weeks.

Well, looks like people already stated that the OP's graphic is about steam only, and also gave us some better graphics showing that PlanetSide 2 have stable population for months. I myself use the Steam to get Station Cash only, as I cancelled my international credit card and I'm only using national credit cards right now. So, as Steam can provide me this kind of purchases, I always run PlanetSide 2 directly by the launcher.
Anyway of course people will start cut down their hours for PlanetSide 2, I myself did it. Anyway I don't stop playing it, same as for Crysis 3. And I also have hundreds of games that I don't always play but sometimes I take them from my shelves and give it a try again. Doesn't look like a disaster for me.

SOE reported 778,437 active players as of Feb. 28 2013 and now reports only 286,804 as of May 24 2013 resulting in the server merge. That 63% in only 3 months. Anything newer then that is hard to come by since SOE does not want public access to these kinds of stats anymore and filed legal claims against sites to take it down. This Includes weapon and vehicle performance as well and population and faction balance.

Why? Horrible game balance, nightmare performance, boring gameplay - not enough reasons? Add endlessly nerfed weapons and abilities, population imbalance, Still not enough? So you, like me, will still play Planetside 2, for some time.

Totally ridiculous.

I think you forgot this:

I think game performance is the number one thing that is causing people to leave.

Crashing to desktop is not fun. Stuttering is not fun.

The game as a concept is an incredible idea and is a lot of fun...when it functions correctly.

Apparently all the quitters will be replaced by the Chinese: http://massively.joystiq.com/2013/06/25/planetside-2-launches-in-china-to-surprising-numbers/

Right now I just can't play.

Already tried uninstalling removing and reinstalling. Still nothing but this.

It's because of the sideways fizzle capping that The Lettuce creates, the sideways fizzle capping is a massive issue and must be addressed.

Server downtime.

I don't know how SOE needs make this any more obvious to people. Maybe they should send employees door to door to let people know.

probably players are already bored to be farmed by vehicles

It seems like some of the more active players are burning out on the same schedule. IDK how to change that, but its interesting to note and relevant to the current discussion.

Many will likely come back in 1d6 months, and hopefully by then we'll have more continents, intercontinental warpgate travel, and just one uncappable sanctuary per empire. The big picture isn't that interesting at the moment, mostly because of the limits of having just 3 continents.

client side hit detection makes combat a 50/50 proposition negating skill

I wish, nope my launcher got jack up and can't fix it.

the biggest problem with planetside 2 which is driving players away is the dev team's inability to actually address and fix problems of the game. They almost always respond to problems with sweeping changes, nerfs, or buffs, which often outright ignore the real reason the problem occurs.

Rocket Pods- High damage accurate missiles with a high rate of fire on a fast moving agile craft...
what to address- The insane accuracy and/or rate of fire of the weapon.
what the dev's do- Nerf the AoE. Then Nerf the Damage. Then buff the health of what the missiles are shot at.

Hex System- Freedom of choice in attack methods allow attackers to simply avoid defenders in defensible positions.
what to address- the lay out of defenses suck making it hard to defend any where save for a few places.
what the dev's do- Remove Hex System, Add Lattice System which instead Forces players to attack each other.

Tank Guns- Projectiles fire from an off-set place.
what to address- Camera Placement on certain vehicles.
What the dev's do - Change the place projectiles fire from.

1. One hit kill. It is worst point in big scale game when you need big runs.
2. Overpopulated 1 faction to another.
3. No more real content for half year+
4. Useless type of weapons, gameplay style or even roles (NC close-range)
5. B2W ingame. Camo, very expensive cost of vehicle, aircraft and maxes when all can be killed by 80+ lvl or donated players from 1-2 shoots
6. No-lifer pressing new players - I see whole big outfits thet not fight whith other strong outfit - just attack only randoms platoon. This must be greatly penaltized. I dont know how - I`m pay money to SOE - this is their interest.
7. Millions bugs - I be shocked of numbers of bugs, glitches, lags, FPS drops after I come back in game (not play from November 2012)
8. Many old players use bugs and not be penalized (NW armor bug, damage immune, lag kill and so on).
9. Changes in game going to wrong way. It so strange seen - how development company make changes that not even needed and ignore thousands needed changes. And most strange - they hear only whining not constructive posts from not understanding game players.
10. Prioritetes to China and console releases stop really game changing and making. We all see results of this - game not progressive. They just do MOOOOOOOOOOOOORE money from different area of possible custumeres. This is as say to all active players "Screw you all, we take all you money and you are now trash for us."

I dont play as much, but thats because i have 400+ hrs...also because matherson TR are terrible.

Its a difficult situation when you consider people will always gravitate to the most easily exploitable systems. That and the TR having enough influence to control what does and doesn't get changed. Its not that surprising when almost every system wide change impacts the TR the least, and TR specific changes can be canceled just prior to patch day. The only major change that seriously hurt them was the Flinch fix.... and all that was doing was putting them on even ground with the other 2 empires.