My recollection is that around ~2011 a day without a fail whale was the odd one out.
Record engagement these days is most likely measured in single digit percentage points over average engagement (at most maybe 10-20%), where when you're early and your traffic is spiking, it can be an order of magnitude more traffic than what you're used to seeing. The absolute numbers are larger yes, but from the perspective of "what can my infrastructure / architecture handle", relative changes are far more relevant.
You're talking about a man who has more than once been fined by the SEC for making false statements about public securities. What makes you think that he'd be a more reliable narrator for a private company for which he has no external accountability and a large personal financial interest?
Those numbers have been proven to be incorrect, by people who are posting from locked accounts with 0 followers racking up large nonzero view counts within a few minutes.
