No, stickies don't count. You can see this here on XenForo. In the forum linked below, there are 2 stickies and 20 threads.
https://xenforo.com/community/forums/troubleshooting-and-problems.24/
The problem with counting stickies is that it reduces the number of other threads seen on the first page. The problem can get worse if there are a lot of stickies, causing fewer "normal" threads to show. There is the potential that, if there are a lot of stickies, there won't even be any "normal" threads on the first page (though you'd likely need a lowere threads per page count as well as a lot of stickies).