It counts players who are currently playing active games as being online, which is why you didn't see them. Normally there are people milling around in the Lobby, though. I suggest tha tyou be patient and wait for people to come around. If you click <Join Games> you should also see a list of available games that you can join and a listing of the number of games currently in progress. Note that if you don't see as many available games as there are games listed, it's probably because they are on the other version of Sins and you can't see them. (There is regular Sins v1.16 and Sins Entrenchment (the $10 expansion) v1.02.)
Most people purchased the $10 Entrenchment expansion and are playing that.
Best times to find activity -- European and North American prime time, say from 3 pm U.S. Eastern Standard Time to Midnight U.S. EST.
Welcome to the Sins online multiplayer community, btw.
