The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 7 letter word A-SIDES
I've seen this crossword clue in Financial Times
A
-
S
I
D
E
S
More clues leading to the result A-SIDES
Buddy explains!

The straight part
We know that "more popular numbers" is the straight/definition part of the clue. The straight part is often a synonym or definition, in this case more popular numbers = a-sides.The cryptic/wordplay part
In cryptic crossword there's often an wordplay/cryptic part as well.This part involves a more complex hint, such as an anagram, homophone, hidden word, etc.
Sadly, We don't have an explanation for this specific crossword clue yet.