diff --git a/CHANGES.md b/CHANGES.md
index e8064dc34..33247a94d 100644
--- a/CHANGES.md
+++ b/CHANGES.md
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 #### [unreleased]
-* use `browser_download_url` for GitHub release asset when available otherwise get redirect url
+* update GitHub release asset parsing
 
 #### 12.7.2 / 2024-12-18
 * update `freemius/wordpress-sdk`
diff --git a/git-updater.php b/git-updater.php
index 1bde1479e..c617ff83b 100644
--- a/git-updater.php
+++ b/git-updater.php
@@ -12,7 +12,7 @@
  * Plugin Name:       Git Updater
  * Plugin URI:        https://git-updater.com
  * Description:       A plugin to automatically update GitHub hosted plugins, themes, and language packs. Additional API plugins available for Bitbucket, GitLab, Gitea, and Gist.
- * Version:           12.7.2.1
+ * Version:           12.7.2.2
  * Author:            Andy Fragen
  * License:           MIT
  * Domain Path:       /languages
diff --git a/src/Git_Updater/API/GitHub_API.php b/src/Git_Updater/API/GitHub_API.php
index a91c740c7..dbceca276 100644
--- a/src/Git_Updater/API/GitHub_API.php
+++ b/src/Git_Updater/API/GitHub_API.php
@@ -126,18 +126,11 @@ public function construct_download_link( $branch_switch = false ) {
 		if ( $this->use_release_asset( $branch_switch ) ) {
 			$release_asset = $this->get_release_asset();
 
-			if ( ! isset( $this->response['release_asset_download'] ) ) {
-				$auth_header = $this->add_auth_header( $this->default_http_get_args, $release_asset );
-				$response    = wp_remote_get( $release_asset, $auth_header );
-				if ( is_wp_error( $response ) ) {
-					return $response;
-				}
-				$response = json_decode( wp_remote_retrieve_body( $response ) );
-				if ( property_exists( $response, 'browser_download_url' ) ) {
-					$this->set_repo_cache( 'release_asset_download', $response->browser_download_url );
-				}
+			if ( empty( $this->response['release_asset_download'] ) ) {
+				$response = $this->api( $release_asset );
+				$this->parse_release_asset_response( $response );
 			}
-			if ( isset( $this->response['release_asset_download'] ) ) {
+			if ( ! empty( $this->response['release_asset_download'] ) ) {
 				return $this->response['release_asset_download'];
 			}
 
@@ -325,6 +318,22 @@ public function parse_branch_response( $response ) {
 		return $branches;
 	}
 
+	/**
+	 * Parse release asset API response.
+	 *
+	 * @param \stdClass $response API response.
+	 *
+	 * @return void
+	 */
+	public function parse_release_asset_response( $response ) {
+		if ( $this->validate_response( $response ) ) {
+			return;
+		}
+		if ( property_exists( $response, 'browser_download_url' ) ) {
+			$this->set_repo_cache( 'release_asset_download', $response->browser_download_url );
+		}
+	}
+
 	/**
 	 * Parse tags and create download links.
 	 *