The current download metric adds one when a listener accesses a file in the feed. This could be due to streaming part of an episode, or downloading the file in its entirety. Some apps do this preemptively.

The number is updated instantly and refreshes upon page load.

We're unable to see if a listener presses play on a file, nor can we see how many listeners are subscribed to public feeds and universal links.

With the embeddable player, each page load downloads the audio of any episode embedded on that page.