'Stop the BS'. That is a bit of a rough response isn't it? I don't know all the numbers and I doubt that your friends list is a good enough sample of the gaming population to get a good grasp on what is going on. I would agree that numbers do not seem as high as previous games but that was the point of listing all the platforms in my original statement, to show one of the reasons why games are hard to find. It would also be one of the reasons lag seems higher then previous games. Player numbers are divided to the extreme.
You said yourself that you have friends who lowered the gamer numbers by going back to last gen. You just made my point for me.
I know some who have forked over the $ for a next gen console and then didn't pick up any games because they spent their money on the console. In fact I only know of 2 other people who have actually played Ghosts and neither of them continued playing once they had a taste of it. Currently when I am online in multiplayer (ps4) it ranges between 30k to 40k.