Their digital performance improved significantly post-Queendom.
They also had a pretty dedicated fanbase up until that point, the bsides for I Burn did pretty well and iirc only IZ*ONE matched/beat them in that department for 4th gen groups. Their album sales were great too.
Miyeon, Yuqi, Soojin, and the others were booking several individual gigs there as well.
I feel like they were on an upward trend until the Soojin scandal made everything tumble downhill. HWAA started freefalling and their reputation was severely affected.