I previously played a lot of the SNG 9, 18 and 27 play. I mainly played the 9 man.
The rake is now much higher on these games. 15 years ago, these sites actually chipped in on the payout so that the payout was larger than the sum of the entries. They would run these bonus games maybe once every 2 hours. Their version of a free roll. 27 people put in 10 cents and the prize pool was $3.00 to the top 9.
People were allowed 3 of these per day. I would come register for a freeroll and while I waited, I would get into one of these. Then when I lost the freeroll, I would sign up for a second one.
I found it much easier to reach the top 9 of 27 than to reach the top 3 of 9. Not sure why that was.
I think it was a cheap way for the
poker site to get people hooked on their site. After playing 3, I would play some of the raked ones. I played a lot of dime and dollar SNG's back in the day.
I think the lack of players on some of these sites are the biggest reason SNG's are less popular.