I'm going to say something that may not be received all that well. But most of us in the revolver section are hunters, cowboys, collectors and target shooters. Collectively, we like all of the revolver calibers which is fine and dandy. However, there is a big demand, out there, right now, for firearms that are "on the list to be banned." People are buying up semi-auto handguns, rifles and shotguns in mass quantities right now. Some are buying them out of desire and/or a need while others are buying out of fear. Look at the cover of most recent gun magazines and you will most likely see a bunch of AR-15's on the covers (which is fine BTW...I own several AR's). I figure that if some people are standing at the door of their safes, trying to figure which gun they will trade, to lessen the sting of that AR they have on layaway, then they are coming to this conclusion: There are millions of 44's out there. Mine shoots like crap and the front sight is canted. I will always be able to obtain another one in the future. I think I'll flip it. Here is my rough beakdown:
Cowboy shooting = mostly 357/38 and 45 Long Colt
Plinkers = are always going to shoot .22 lr (especially when ammo prices are high)
Hunters = have recently stepped up to the hand cannon calibers....454, 460 S&W, 500 S&W etc.
Where does that leave the 44 Mag? Well, somewhere in the middle and sort of left out, in a way. Perhaps there are just higher percentages of "wimpy" folks, in the world these days, as compared to prior times. This would polarize the community into two categories....1. "I only shoot super light stuff" and 2. "I only shoot the stuff that hurts my hand when I touch one off" - The 44 Mag can "sort of" fall into each of these two categories with hand loading. However, there is no camparison between the 44 and say a 38. Also, there is no comparison between a 44 and a full house 460 load.
The 44 Mag is always going to be one of the kings out of all of the calibers. People are just focused in other directions right now. I happen to like the 44 Mag. Maybe we should use the fact that some people have, for just this moment, put 44's on the "back burner" to our advantage. IMO, it never hurts to throw another $300, LNIB, SBH into the old gun safe. I know that there are more elements, that come into play, in regards to a good ammo popularity breakdown. This is just my perspective. Your mileage may vary.