how to choose components by "popularity"
Go to a distributor, pick components that are "active" and sort by stock level. Compare several. Look for second sources where appropriate and compare, including details. A part may be very popular, but not in a certain package or temperature range. 

Double check the manufacturer's website to be sure that the part is recommended for new designs. 

Carefully consider who else is likely to be using the parts. If they're aimed specifically or mostly at something with a design life of 6 months (eg. cell phones or whatever the next big thing is) and your product has to be available for 15 or 20 years, there is a good possibility it will be obsoleted before you even get many out there. 

There is still an element of chance here, it's possible that there  is a shortage today of the part you should be specifying and it will be the best one in 3 months when your product ships. There's no one way of dealing with that sort of thing except keeping an eye on the market. Right now some passives are in short supply. 

As far as actual sales volumes, those numbers are not freely provided by anyone, as far as I know. Occasionally teasers will be quoted from very expensive reports (such as market share of microcontrollers) and you can read the trade press for that sort of thing, but it's not terribly reliable and often not current or has some kind of baked-in bias by the folks who paid for it.