A project counter is not a unique-player counter
CurseForge and Modrinth project counters are public popularity signals. They are useful because they show which route is active and which project is receiving attention. They are not the same as unique players, unique devices, safe installs, or official Mojang adoption. One person can download multiple files. A project can have multiple versions. A player can use both CurseForge and Modrinth. A tutorial can send many users to a page without proving every download was opened in Minecraft.
That is why this page separates counters by route. If you write that the Verity Mod has passed 14 million platform-counter downloads, you should explain that the number adds separate public project displays and includes the official Modrinth Java alternate. If you need a stricter CurseForge-only figure for the four tracked Verity project pages, use 13,775,470 at this check. If you are talking about the single largest current route, use PnTMC's 7,348,123 displayed CurseForge project downloads and name the Bedrock project.