I don't have numbers, but I strongly feel that they lost the gamers community. People who actually... game.
There was a time when hardcore gamers do buy and play rhythm games, including Just Dance. I should know. My console friends back then have copies of the game and buy it every year. And my friends are real hardcore gamers. The type who play Tekken and try to compete in local tourneys.
Ubi had a ton of success in the early iterations of the game. In my opinion, It's because motion-tracked, rhythm-based gaming was still considered magical during Just Dance's early days (2009-2013) and people want to experience it. Plus, the game releases back then were actually incredible (Just Dance 4, Dance Central 3, anyone?), or at least for their time.
Ubi continued doing their thing and somehow got lazy in improving the product, especially when Harmonix abandoned Dance Central, JD's biggest competitor. Just Dance 2015 arrived and many thought, including me and my friends, that it was a disappointing release because it seemed like just a big 40-track DLC that didn't offer new features.
This trend continued in the subsequent editions. New year, new DLC with several interesting dances. Year by year, my friends are losing interest. I feel the gamer community at large felt the same way. I bet many JD fans just started watching and dancing to the YouTube gameplay instead of buying and playing the game.
There were years when it seemed like Ubi was trying to make the product better. JD2019 came out and IMO, that's one of the better editions that has the best dances in terms of choreo and level of fun. It felt like the choreography level has stepped up for that edition. Even some of that year's lame and troll songs have decent choreo. Sweet Sensation, Dame Tu Cosita, Shaky Shaky have some goofy dance steps, but I can totally see their choreo being the best among their kind. Plus, 2019's extremes are the best! Hard enough to play, but totally doable after several retries without requiring you to rehearse it at 0.25x speed on YouTube.
Today, we get Just Dance Decades of Hits. I danced to the choreos and while may of the routines are excellent, this year, like many other years, are full of songs that repeat a dance move in one musical beat/measure, another dance move in another musical beat, then back to the previous dance move. Not a lot of dance/gameplay improvement there.
A lot of Just Dance choreos now are just you posing (and not dancing) like a pretty girl. Talk about alienating the men gaming market even more. Also, somehow, Ubi thought incorporating lore and doing multi-angle dance footage will do the trick 🙄
The extremes in recent years give off "hah! you can't dance like us; go ahead and suffer!" vibes because they're using an 8-count phrasing, which would've been fine if the game has a practice mode.
Where is the practice mode?
Also, where is the World Dance Floor?
And what about the many dances missing in Just Dance+?
Speaking of, can we go back to a time where songs get added to the game? I don't care if I have to buy them each at 10 bucks. Just do more stuff. You used to do it back then-- you release like 3 new dances each month.
Ubi obviously doesn't care of what I just said here. After all, they're now just chasing the money of moms with hyperactive kids as well as friends who only party during the holiday season. Just look at the choreos. Many (if not all) of them are about making you laugh as you or your friends try to do the dances.
I hope you get great Just Dance sales this year, Ubi. If you don't, don't act like you don't know why.