No, Mastodon is Not Growing, Social Control Media is Generally Waning
If you don't hear about or from Mastodon (or Fediverse, i.e. several compatible platforms) as much as you did 1 or 2 years ago, it's not just you... it's a correct reflection of what's happening. The hype is dead.
Not only did the "Federation" stagnate; the people who tracked it threw in the towel (the following had gotten orphaned before other volunteers stepped in), both for the above and for the-federation.info:
Active (users) 6 months:
This was already getting obvious by the end of 2021. Our sister site pulled the plug on the whole thing over a year ago, seeing it was mostly a source of online abuse.
Of course more instances will pull the plug, seeing that it's more of a hassle than it's worth as costs grow and number of active users keeps declining. █