New place never achieves popularity (10)

I believe the answer is:

prevalence

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'popularity' is the definition.
(thesaurus)

'new place never' is the wordplay.
'new' is an anagram indicator.
'place'+'never'='placenever'
'placenever' is an anagram of 'PREVALENCE'.

'achieves' acts as a link.
I am not very happy about this link. It may be part of another bit of the clue.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for prevalence that I've seen before include "Superiority" , "Widespread availability" .)

I've seen this clue in The Guardian and The Globe and Mail.

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