As with many other aspects of SEO and link building, it’s hard to say exactly how many backlinks you need – it really depends on the competitiveness of your market and your overall goals.
In general, it’s safe to say that you can prioritize quality over quantity in your backlink profile. For instance, it’s more beneficial to have a smaller number of links from reputable, high Domain Authority sites like The New York Times than hundreds of links from spammy, low Domain Authority blogs.
Another thing to consider is the likelihood that more recent links can be impactful in search rankings. An increase in links to a landing page can serve as a signal of relevance to search engines, so having newer links than your competitors could help you rank more competitively.
To help set a goal for the number of links you’d like to obtain, I recommend taking a look at the backlink profiles of top-ranking sites. In order to rank in line with or above the competition, you’ll want your backlink profile to be comparable, if not stronger than those profiles.