HF conditions improving?

Stations spotted with the
loop on 10m FT8 yesterday

Quite late yesterday, I went on 10m FT8 RX using the tiny indoor loop antenna. 

Despite this, 185 stations were spotted including many in South America. OK, this is NS and propagation is usually better than EW, but I get the feeling things on HF are improving.  

Better equipped stations were spotting the southern USA on 10m FT8.