Different metrics tell a different story. For example GitHub pull requests [1] are C++: 2.60%, Rust: 2.09%, C: 1.43%, with a clear trend showing Rust ahead of C++ next year. Or you could look at the Stackoverflow survey of languages used among professionals [2], which gives C++: 20.17%, C: 16.7%, Rust: 8.8%, with rust gaining 1-2% each year.

There's no best metric, they're all biased, you need to consider a few different ones. Otherwise you won't notice when you've stumbled upon one with with an extreme view.

Combining C and C++ in language stats is debatable, they should IMHO be measured separately. When grouped as a language category, "C/C++/Rust" is slowly becoming more common.

1: https://tjpalmer.github.io/languish/#y=pulls&names=c%2B%2B%2...

2: https://survey.stackoverflow.co/2022/#most-popular-technolog...