Cool idea. Here's how to do it in Linux with files:

    # create the "counters"
    touch {01..16}
    # use multitail to show all counters in a grid, 4 columns
    multitail -s 4 *

Now you can write to any of these files

    echo hello > 01
    echo world > 16

The result looks like this: https://i.imgur.com/yVWWMfr.png

You can also tell multitail to automatically rescan the directory and display new files

    # check current directory for new files once/sec. match any file
    multitail -s 4 -q 1 "*"