Google Pixel reportedly sees 3x growth in North America in just one month – is it too good to be true?

1 month is nothing and the data from Statcounter is likely to be more directional (since from my understanding it's not based on shipments or POS transaction aggregation). If they saw multiple quarters of significant gains in market share, that would be a different story.

Yet the number of them I see in the wild each day is zero or one not counting the 8 Pro in my hand. So I think that data may be flawed. It's a sea of Apple or Samsung.

If you want your phone to be permabricked by the manufacturer at some random point in the future, it's hard to beat a Google Pixel.

What can I say, most people seem to just buy without checking reviews.

The phone is a failure actually, for many reasons listed in proper reviews.