Disclosed herein are representative embodiments for performing entropy coding or decoding using a counter-based scheme. In one exemplary embodiment disclosed herein, a first codeword is received from compressed digital media data. The first codeword is decoded into a first digital media data value by referencing a codeword table that associates the first codeword with the first digital media data value and a second codeword with a second digital media data value. A counter for counting occurrences of the first digital media data value is incremented. The value of the first counter is compared with the value of a second counter that counts occurrences of a second digital media data value. If the value of the first counter and the value of the second counter are equal (or greater than or equal), the codeword table is updated to swap codewords between the first and second digital media values.