its a way to try and drive engagement. it calls to peoples competativeness.
"i have such and such.."
on reddit they also have a interact badge, so if you been interactive for x days you get badge 1, xx days badge 2, xxx days badge 3 ect.
if you time out on the interaction you start again from 0? and work up on interactions?? not to sure on that but that what its trying to convay.