I was just reading something in regards to this.
Peter Todd: Anyway, given the huge growth potential of Bitcoin and blockchain tech, if 20MB is the max limit there is a high chance we'll be seeing 20MB blocks soon; if the limit was 100MB there is a high chance we'd be seeing 100MB blocks.
However I don't see any evidence behind such a statement nor do I believe that it is true.
Looking at the blockchain, we can see that it isn't actually about the number of transactions but rather their size.
http://i.imgur.com/AE3pW4l.pngWe can clearly see that some blocks are quite big but with a lower number of transactions. However someone else will have to explain this as I'm not that familiar with the blockchain. Although it could also be that someone is doing this on purpose or stress testing.