When images load are they counted as pageviews/traffic?

Say for example I use my server to host this image

and post it in this thread, everytime someone reads this thread and the image is loaded is that counted as a pageview or does it affect traffic analysis in anyway? I know it kills my bandwidth but does it affect my traffic stats, like say Alexa rankings for example.

 

Yes! It cound as a pageview.. I do it to my site, because I have the images to an another server ;-)

 

I think the proper term is "hits"

 

So does it affect alexa rankings?

 

Maybe no