EDIT: Just crossed 26000!
Almost! At the time of this post, lemmy.world has a whopping 25733 users and is growing fast.
Since my last post yesterday, it has added 4000 new users, making it the clear second-largest lemmy instance out there. Also quickly catching up to lemmy.ml's 36000 (not taking new signups).
beehaw.org (3rd largest) sits at 12500 users, partly because of more restrictive registration requirements.
Source: https://lemmy.fediverse.observer/list
Exciting to see all this growth!
Yep, in theory that should spread out the server load since every post/comment/like/etc. in the communities is sent to your instance only once but can be consumed by many people, at different times of day. I do wonder how much help one- or two-person instance are, though, or if they're actually detrimental to the overall system.