I imagine this is completely serious, and isn't that different from what I've seen in a big city (NYC). Back when I was permitting myself to use these apps (2017, before I truly assessed the cost-benefit analysis), I met a girl who apparently swiped left on every guy. She showed me her Tinder and she had over 5,000 matches (and for some reason was meeting up with me, although it didn't last very long. I think she did get married a few years ago, though). That experience makes me think that the 20,000 number is legitimately a reasonable estimate.

They apparently recommended† spending an hour a day on swiping and chatting; six months of chatting is presumably on the order of 2000 different chattees, so in all likelihood the number of swipes is closer to 0.2 million.

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† I'm getting a server error, so I'm taking others' word for it.

He said he spent several hours a week swiping. Several hours a week times 3 years is a lot more than 20,000 swipes.

You can download your Tinder and Hinge swipe/like stats, so it's likely accurate.

The sad part is that this what "success" looks like. The funnel looks way worse for most guys.