Andromeda drops from 3rd to 15th (out of 20) on April's top downloads for PS Store*.

After Dragon Age II was released 03/2011, the franchise hit an all-time low in terms of popularity and Mass Effect, riding high after the success of ME2, was considered the "class" of BioWare's franchise line-ups.  Now, I really enjoyed the game, and have played multiple playthroughs, but the weaknesses were obvious in terms of re-used environments, spawning enemies, and a story that essentially crumbled in the third act.  Even with its issues, BioWare still released two solid DLC's and initially committed to an "Exalted March" expansion in an attempt to expand of the Mage Vs Templar narrative.  However, due the overall reception, the "Exalted March" expansion was cancelled and it was announced that efforts would be put into creating a new game instead.  At this point, EA had every possibility to kill the franchise as the brand's momentum was pretty much stalled at that point.  They had yet another opportunity to kill it when it was announced in 2013 that the game would be delayed a full year to add the different playable races to the game but they backed it as well.  What resulted from this patience was BioWare's best selling release to date.

You'd have to think that with the amount of money made by the Mass Effect franchise prior to the release of ME:A that, despite whatever sales projections they reach or not at this point, they would re-dedicate to the franchise like they did with Dragon Age.  Its clear they needed more time to tighten the technical aspects of the game and hopefuly are given that opportunity with MEA 2 so that it doesn't get off on the wrong foot like ME:A because there is a lot to like about the game.      

One point to make, the exalted March dlc was cancelled due to the transition to the frostbite engine, according to bioware itself. Most of the dlc was reworked a bit into inquisitions early missions regarding the mage template conflict.

Another tidbit, apparently Varric was going to die at the end of the dlc...so good thing it was never released

Proof? Unless you know "most fans" you can't claim that and the sales aren't definitive as no digital sales are counted. It may be slight lower than ME3 but not a failure.

Yeah, I think they make through the Archon/Primus/Kett storyline at least with DLCs bridging the gap between ME:A and ME:A 2.  After that, I can see them maybe trying the Dragon Age formula and giving the option to play as a different race.  How many years have people been wanting to play as a Krogan or Asari?  Maybe something akin to DA:O with different respective origin stories...too much potential there in the right hands.  

^ Above two posts. Can't the MP scratch that particular itch for you? I've always seen Mass Effect as the story of humanity integrating with wider communities.

I think something intrinsic would be lost if you were playing it from another angle.

Well I did force you to sort of add 1 and 1 together to "get it". It seems I thought too highly of you.

Missed potential on Bioware's part is the most glaring thing to me. I know they have to deal with EA, but EA has somehow figured out who needed to stay so they can get back to churning out yearly products. I'm also on my second playthrough and I cashed it in. I'm done. I got bored with it and knowing that the end will have little change this time around gives me ZERO incentive to keep slogging onward. 

I think I'm going to continue to like it.  If I had to hazard a guess, I'll probably like it more after we get some DLC.  It's got flaws, and I see plenty of them.  I still like the game.  I wonder if the game had simply been titled "Journey to Andromeda" (or something like that, but no mention of ME) if people would have felt the same way about it.

That is not how such things work .
When making a survey, do you think they ask 7 billion people, or just 1000 and then make projections?
When you know 10 people who are fans of ME and 9 do not like MEA, so it is "most", simple as that. And no, you do not always say "our projections/opinion is based on a representative survey among 100 people", such things are common knowledge.

But everyone I know who has played it likes it a lot, the only people who I know that dont are you salty bastards on the internet.