Now you might wonder when you look at a digital audio level meter why there might be more then 16 steps.
And its not to only handle 20 and 24 bit audio.
It's so that you can see the average values over a range of time.
This is known in audio engineering as "ballistics". Old VU meters were mechanical items.
The pointer on the meter tended to overshoot and average out the audio energy.
Digital meters are designed to minic the mechanical action of the old meters.