According to graphtreon his peak patrons was 897 last year, so his current 439 is under half of the peak. Since a few of the 439 will be new patrons, he must have lost well over half of the original patrons at the start of the year.
Even so, as long as his patrons are counted in the hundreds, he will probably be motivated to keep on going. Because 400 patrons is worse than 900 patrons, but it’s better than nothing, probably, in his mind, and better than an alternative way of making a living.
I wonder who the remaining patrons are. A few of them will be die hard fans, but at this point I wonder if a substantial number are just people who subscribed a few years ago and have forgotten about it. Sometimes people just forget to delete old subscriptions they don’t use any more. I know I have.