Population is dropping, yet server become laggier

[Koala]

Server is getting empty so why tf the game becoming laggy?

30+ ping? Seriously? Already experiencing this for 2days.
Its definitely not my ISP since i can play other steam and non-steam games smooth… I can even watch 4k yt videos no buffering.

Many friends suggested me to use VPN(they also experiencing this) so i tried almost all free VPN

VPN works but having my ping spikes from 0.02 to 5ms every minute is still not enjoyable/hardly playable.
Im not considering to pay/subscribe to paid VPN for faster connection coz thats just dumb - paying monthly for a single dying game, when i dont encounter shts on other more relevant and alive games and stuff.

I still like to play this game yet the game itself is starting to get unplayable for some people including me.

[trombini.vinicius]

My ping is stable at least.

[Rain23]

its IMC in a nutshell.
population keep going down yet GTW maps still crashing, its unbelievable =D
sometimes the updates do this weird “block” thing towards some ISP/route randomly, i dont even know how they even did it.

[Shalala]

probably cost-cutting
change network server hosting to a worse but cheaper one.