'hits' or accesses aren't just derived from clicking into messages. It's any time you reload or whatever causes the server to touch the database which is what you're seeing increase. Mouse over caused our daily access numbers to drop when we implemented it by design. It would be easy to run your access number up just by scrolling up and down the page when that was a thing to do, but it certainly made reading the site quickly a LOT easier to do back when we averaged over 1,400 new messages a day 15 years ago.
Later
When was the last time you *really* did something with your Z to call yourself a Z enthusiast?