Is basic hardcore league really that dead?

So I decided to make my first HC character late in tempest and I planned on continuing with the character after the temp league ended. I heard rumors that the normal HC league was dying off a bit, but I had no idea it was at this level. Reaching Act 3 merciless there was 0 public parties on the noticeboard, so I figured everyone who played this league was likely in Act 4. Then I reached Highgate and... 0 people in public parties on the noticeboard and no one in town.

This is kinda of disappointing for me because I always enjoyed playing standard and I wanted the normal HC league to be a nice change of pace. It seems like the normal standard league is for the most part very healthy so I'm kind of wondering why normal HC is so empty. Is it really totally dead??

Last time we got stats on this sort of thing, which was a while ago (and while temp leagues were running), it was consistently something like 50% of people in the SC temp league, 25% in the hardcore temp league, 23% in standard and 2% in hardcore. People who like hardcore don't tend to be attached to their characters, so a permanent hardcore league is not very appealling to most of them as long as there are alternatives running.

Its dead jim

This is Standard righ now:

Many HC players don't group or trade. So they just kind of appear in towns for no readily apparent reason. There aren't many.

See... HC is temporary by nature, so players that prefer HC are far more likely to prefer the temporary leagues. SC is more permanent, so less players are attracted to the temp leagues as a fraction.

It's natural.

Good answers above me, but I'll just add that HC died the moment the first hardcore league came out.

is ded mane

(I tried playing it like a year ago, wanted to exchange some basic currency and wasn't successful at all. this was between temp leagues, mind you.)

I play normal hardcore. :o

I play normal HC too, I like to be able to reach level 85 on HC and accumulate wealth there. I start on temp HC leagues because I know they will migrate there too, however once temp leagues are over Ill be in normal HC :)

Add me? Hee.

I mostly play in perm hc.