This script records progress made over download without using the `pipe` function and is incredibly memory efficient.

Track Download Progress in node.js

const http = require('http');
const fs = require('fs');
const path = require('path');

const fileLocation = path.join(__dirname, 'video.mp4');

fs.writeFileSync(fileLocation, '');
const file = fs.createWriteStream(fileLocation);

function printSize(bytes) {
    let output = bytes;
    let steps = 0;

    units = ["B", "KiB", "MiB", "GiB", "TiB", "PiB", "EiB"];

    while (output > 1024) {
        output /= 1024;
        steps++;
    }

    return parseFloat(output).toFixed(2) + " " + units[steps];
}

const memoryUsage = [0];
let progress = 0;

const req = http.request(process.argv[2], res => {
    console.log();
    const size = Number(res.headers['content-length']);
    res.on('data', data => {
        file.write(data);

        progress += Buffer.byteLength(data);
        process.stdout.write("\r" + Math.floor((progress / size * 100)) + "%");

        memoryUsage.push(process.memoryUsage().heapUsed);
    });

    file;

    res.on('end', function() {
        file.close();

        const avg = memoryUsage.reduce((a, i) => a + i) / memoryUsage.length;
        const max = Math.max(...memoryUsage);
        const min = Math.min(...memoryUsage);

        console.log("\n Memory Usage Statistics for", printSize(size));
        console.log("Avg:", printSize(avg), "Max:", printSize(max), "Min:", printSize(min));
    });
});

req.end();