cartridges are ordinaly ranked in sales/quantity produced. Cartridges like 380, 9mm, 38sp, 357, 45 acp have been around for a long time and have millions of guns ahead of the 5.7, 40, 10mm. The legacy cartridges are pretty much standards not only in industry but how people compare cartridges in general. Look at the 40, at one point you might have thought the 40 became the new standard but it didn’t, it only became very popular. The 40 was still being compared to an older standard, the 9mm that still outsold it. Nevertheless, popularity is ordinal as well... the top three big defensive auto cartridges are 9mm, 45acp, and 40 S&W. How is the 40 not popular? What major auto cartridge is overtaking it? None, it still ranks in the top 3 major auto pistol cartridges albeit its sales has substantially dropped.
