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Notes -
Since 1660, it was probably performed enough that most theater aficionados would have had occasion to see at least one Shakespeare play performed at least once in their lifetimes. Why 1660? Aside from the irregularity after his death, Cromwell's Puritan dictatorship (10-20 years or so of no theater) actually was pretty effective at shutting down plays until the monarchy's restoration, including Shakespeare. It's also worth nothing that for at least one time period afterward, Shakespearean plays were often performed having been in many cases rewritten or adapted to change some key aspects. For example, there was one era (see: Restoration Comedy) where many of them were given happy endings, which as you may imagine required extensive changes in some cases (like King Lear or Macbeth). Also, you mentioned some of the vulgar jokes the plays contained, this also waxed and waned according to the times. Immediately after the restoration, a lot of theater got very bawdy very quickly, and so afterward there was a bit of a push to field plays that were more socially beneficial or preaching good behavior, and that extended to Shakespearean performance as well (see: Sentimental Comedy). Furthermore there were a few eras where the tragedies were a little, uh, too heavy and others where the comedy wasn't "in style" - so sometimes this meant Shakespeare wasn't performed as often, and other times this meant they would significantly change the jokes. Even beyond this, you have to remember there was still some aspects of theater that, in a pan-European sense, developed differently. Shakespeare wasn't always super duper popular beyond England, though he did get some common play-time (forgive the pun). And within England, there was a long time where "official" plays were only legally allowed to be put on in two or three specific places. This necessarily cut down on the number of Shakespeare that would be even possible to stage, and certainly the less-popular Shakespeare might not show up at all. The typical count is what, like 30+ plays? Every play having been performed at least once within a 50-60 year span might have been possible, but I doubt it. Some of those "least popular" plays are like, actually pretty unpopular, and I imagine that the frequency diminishes pretty fast going backwards in time.
Source: currently taking a history of modern theater course (it's filling a GE requirement). If you have some specific questions I'd be happy to ask my professor for you! We haven't gotten quite that far yet, but I'd imagine the "unbroken chain" is a much more modern thing. Reconstruction of what the originals might have been like wasn't undertaken for at least a century, and was also informed by our historical understanding.
To illustrate the point: https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Farce_of_Sodom,_or_The_Quintessence_of_Debauchery
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