We record a hit each time someone loads your feed in a web browser, feed reader or other program. When bots and automated services request your feed, that also counts as a hit.
Live Hits
Your Live Hit page shows the time and user-agent for the last 25 hits to your feed. If we have fewer than 25 hits on record, we’ll list all of them. It looks like this:
Why does it matter?
Hits don’t always correspond to subscribers, but they’re still important -- especially when they come from a web browser.
Potential subscribers are likely to hit your feed in their web browser when they click a “subscribe” link on your website or discover your feed in a search engine. While these people are not counted as subscribers (but will be the moment they get hooked on your content and start viewing it with a feed reader), they have nonetheless seen your feed, and we count these exposures as hits.