> To push back slightly, Discord says they have 19 million weekly active servers, which almost certainly outstrips the number of forums back in the day.

Yeah, but most of the servers are very, very small. They're internet chatrooms. It's more like MSN group chats or IRC channels.

On the other hand, there were probably more small forums than most people realize, due to free forum hosts like Proboards.

Maybe most importantly, having a Discord chat is in no way the same overall effect as having a forum used to be.