For some unknown reason, UFO reports seem to be on the decline even in the face of recent so-called “disclosures” of government research into unidentified aerial phenomena. What’s behind this mysterious decline? Have we become jaded and over-saturated with UFO reports thanks to the innumerable conspiracy YouTube channels publishing endless streams of shaky, out-of-focus videos of lens flares, or could something else be afoot?

As all things UFOs, it’s hard to say. Whatever the cause is, there seems to have been a sharp decrease in annual UFO sightings reported since 2014. That’s according to Cheryl Costa, a reporter with the Syracuse News Times who tracks NUFORC reports throughout the state of New York. According to her most recently published data, UFO sighting reports peaked in 2012 with 378, only to begin dropping in 2014. In 2018, only 103 sightings were reported in New York.

New York’s downward trend is reflective of national data; UFO sighting reports nationwide in the US peaked in 2014 with 13,985 and fell to just 6,933 in 2018, a 50% decline. Despite the decrease, UFO hot spots Las Vegas, Nevada and Phoenix, Arizona once again remain at the top of the list of cities with the highest numbers of UFO sightings, with 52 and 40, respectively. What’s behind this decrease in UFO sightings? Is this a sociological phenomenon, or are anomalous objects actually disappearing from our skies?

One would think that UFO sightings would be increasing along with the rise of aerial drones, but the opposite is true. Could it be that drones have created a go-to explanation and have led to fewer anomalous aerial phenomena to be reported? Or are urban light pollution and the digital zombification caused by mobile technology keeping us from gazing up at the skies as much as we used to? Is that all by design? Any guess is as good as any at this point.

Are people losing interest in UFOs due to over-saturation, or are these phenomena actually less frequent than they once were? For those of us who track and research anomalous phenomena for a living, either explanation should be worrying.