I'm absolutely right

As I opened the website, the “16” changed to “17”. This looked interesting, as if the data were being updated live just as I loaded the page. Alas, a refresh (and quick check in the Developer Tools) reveals it’s fake and always does the transition. It’s a cool effect, but feels like a dirty trick.

Sorry if that felt dirty - I thought about it as a signal that the data is live (it is!).

I think it's a perfect (and subtle) way to signal that refreshing is unnecessary to see the latest data without wasting UI space explicitly explaining it. It was my favorite thing about the UI and I will be borrowing it next time I design a real-time interface where the numbers matter more than the precise timing.

really? it left a bad aftertaste for me

It's not that it's a fake number. They are saying the number is real, just it goes to current_value - 1, and then current value to indicate the value is updating live.

Not sure if that was clear.

Edit: I don't know if it's a real number but that's the claim in the comment above at least

I understand, it’s not about the number itself. My first thought when I opened the page was wow there was a update coincidentally right when I opened it. When refreshing again I felt like wtf I was being mislead