I wholeheartedly agree with you that such a good game should have far, far more people online.  Sadly, most of the people who play the game play it in single player only against the silly AI.  That having been said, if you do enjoy playing the game online, then give very serious consideration to purchasing Entrenchment since most of the people who are playing online have it.  Personally, I think it should have been a free bonus pack, but I've been spoiled by years of playing the Unreal Tournament games (complete with free, multiple bonus packs and additions).  Anyway, purchasing Entrenchment will open up the online multiplayer game for you and you probably won't feel badly about dropping $10 on it later.

Hmmmm when i get on from 7-10pm easternt heirs normaly 100 or so people on. The lobby can be prety empty at time but that is because people don't idel when games start people flock to them very rapidly normaly. I seen game were they were more people online then on sins but gettign a game goign was harder and toke longer.

But if you come on during the day in eastern time then yeah it can be prety slow.

What's scary is that over the past month or so it seems like the highest player count I've seen has been no more than 120 people, and that would be during prime time.  If the player counts dip much below that, soon this will become a dead game as far as online multiplayer goes, which is a shame since I'd like to be able to play this game for years to come.

It helps if people are patient and open to playing all sorts of different types of games (FFA, 2v2, PUG match, etc.).

MP games are about the same speed as SP. Which is to say they last up to about 2 hours in general, often less though sometimes more.

SP takes AGES to complete as the AI will never work with you and feed you etc... like a human will...

Same here most games are under 1 hour and get decided in the first early battles of the match. But when they last longer they turn very epic and are extremly fun.

I do find it strange that for a game that sold so many copies has so few in numbers in online players. I think its could be due to the fact that a game of SINS takes longer than most other games, a single game takes some dedication to play and unless you have alot of free time, there just isnt time to play it as often as one would like. Plus i believe players would rather play against the AI to speed the process up or play against friends who have the game as to avoid players who are poor sports or think they are elites. I myself and a dozen or so fellow SINS players that live locally run LAN games which none of us have to deal with dropouts or if a game Mini-dumps, we can all pick up from where we last saved, something not possible playing with strangers.

Your best bet for online multiplayer is during European and North American prime time--in the evening, say from between 3 pm U.S. Eastern Standard Time to 12:00 Midnight.

Lately the Lobby channel has just been down.  That is to say that when you join, you won't automatically be taken there but you can still see how many people are online.  (Last night I saw a reading of 130 people.)  Just try the <Join Games> button next time and refresh it every minute or so.  Sometimes you have to be patient.  Note that that listing of the number of people who are online includes players who are currently in games, so you won't see them in the Lobby.

Also, if you have regular Sins and you didn't get Entrenchment, you'll probably see very few games available since most online players purchased Entrenchment.  (If you want to play it online, then don't worry about the $10, just get it and it will open up the Sins galaxy of online multiplayer to you.)