Mmh, that source is showing a 10% drop in users for September 2023 the last point, which was notably before alternatives like bluesky and others were starting off. Also note that since Musk took the company private we don't really know how accurate these numbers are.

So I'd argue that the statement theat Twitter/X is bleeding users can't be conclusively decided, but it seems your statement that Twitter has been growing globally is incorrect at least for the last reported quarter.

And how many of those are real people and not ever increasing numbers of bots?

Elon saying what the numbers are is the most unreliable thing.

Elon made a post about user growth being stagnant.