Why is minecraft so unpopular when it used to be one of the most played games ever?

It got too popular for its own good.There's such a huge fanbase of 8-14 year old boys, that it's really embarrassing for people not in that age group to admit they like the game because they don't want to be associated with that.There's also a lot of really weird youtubers (you know the ones, with those really bizarre thumbnails on their videos) that make tons of minecraft videos too.
it's not that the game itself is bad, i think it's totally fine as a game, but the fans of it are so overwhelmingly cringy that it's popular to hate the game

Because it have less challenges.

What do you mean? I still play, in fact tons of people do just look at how many servers and mods are out there, not to mention they are still doing updates for it which means they are still making money off it.