Inspired by a graph posted on blog: https://stackoverflow.blog/2020/05/07/the-way-forward/

CEO says:

Along with the surge in traffic to our sites, we have also seen an encouraging lift in new users signing up for accounts. You can see the spike and continued lift that has been happening in 2020.

As I have mentioned in the answer the number of new accounts being created each day is not a good metric for showing increased participation. Are there any other graphs or numbers indicating that Stack Overflow (and other sites followed) have seen an increase in participation? Was there any increase in the number of good quality content being posted recently? Was it all just curious passer-bys who saw a release announcement for dark mode and wanted to see what the UI looks like with no intention of participating at all?