Six years in a row is more than just a fleeting thing; obviously we have no way to know for sure what will happen in the next few years, but it seems likely that Rust isn't going anywhere anytime soon.

I don't do anything because it's trendy and I don't use Stack Overflow, but I have used Rust in a project. Its popularity with me is 100% merit-based. In fact, the project failed only because of management not understanding its value and me being unable to communicate to them why Rust is superior.

The language ultimately chosen for the project ended up being 100% a political contest, and that language was not Rust.

Or maybe people just like working with it? Trend and hype bring people to it, sure, but that doesn’t take away from the fact that it’s an incredibly economic language that’s also fast.