SOM was the same as classic with nothing new and was released at a terrible time period its not event remotely comparable.
The peak of SOD’s playerbase between 450-550k players was during phase 1 when gdkp’s were not banned
That number crashed 1 week before phase 2 and continually dropped from 550k players to around 40-50k current.
So if you want to make that kind of statement then the numbers speak for themselves gdkp’s had the highest player participation in any phase of sod.
You also check for yourself - https ://ironforge.pro/population/sod/overall/
Closest you’ll get to “official” statistics because blizzard wouldn’t publish official statistics because it would clearly show the negative impact of the gdkp ban.