I bought UT2k4 and wanted to know if the multiplayer is alive or not, tbh

yeah , log in , search for servers and count the players

that game is so old it is probably dead

It's not dead at all. Kindly cease your inane blabbering.

so how many players are there?

There are still servers up. It does not have thousands of players, but you will be able to find games any time.

Not all game modes are active though. Haven't seen a Double Domination game with people in it in years. Mutant and Last Man Standing are also basically dead modes.

Finding a Bombing Run with people in it is also extremely rare. But you should be able to find Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, Onslaught, CTF, vCTF and Invasion RPG regularly. Assault too occasionally. These modes usually have between 1-5 servers with people in it.

The playerbase is by no means massive. There are people who play it regularly, which can make it pretty hard for newbies to get into it as the skill discrepancy can be pretty massive.

so no answer just dvoting :P typical
thx to prove me right , again :P

SteamDB has some info on this:

https://steamdb.info/app/13230/graphs/

It's a pretty old game, so there will also be a decent chunk of retail players. And of course GOG. No matter where you get it, they all use the same servers.
But the 24 hour peak wouldn't go above 150 if I had to guess.

50 players oh my
it is dead just not buried yet