I'm never able to figure out how the numbers actually add up in some of the reports. Different reports sometimes have slightly different data, but they do show the general scope of things. The French side of the Club as a whole lacked commitment to playing 1814 & Bautzen, especially when they first came out. There are folks who play it, for sure, but overall it has not been as popular as others. But I like them both and think they play nice overall. They are not easy wins for the Allies either.
Also don't forget any game prior to Leipzig has data in the old game records, which were mammoth, although Austerlitz gets a fair amount of traction in the DoR as the latest game released when DoR comes online.
Also Andy is correct that the average number of turns has been in an upswing for the first time since 2010 for both number of MP & Single Player played. 2012 - 2014 actually saw a dip in the average number of turns played. 2012 is the lowest, despite having the most MP & SP games out of any years. There were a decent amount of tournament games that year to be fair. But average turns are back towards the higher end now.
Also there are two other things to account for, some of our most prolific players are not gaming as much as they used to. So number of games are down. A good example of this is Andy's record from last year for total games played is down a bit from his highs in 2012. Mine is the same. But we are still here, even if our lives are a bit busier now.

The other is that there are a bit more folks who had been silent in games for several years are playing now again, which is good.
Andy also pointed out he spent a lot of time this year cleaning out the backlog of old games and getting folks to register a result or cancel them.
More normal expectations are probably where things are headed, but I think quality over quantity will be more the standard, at least I hope.