Having been a sleight of hand close-up magician for most of my life (and even made my living performing for several years a very long time ago), you'll be happy to know that in the past decade close-up magic has become orders of magnitude more popular than it ever was - thanks to YouTube and video streaming. The perception stage magic is more popular is simply because performing for large live audiences is the main way to build a sustainable business able to support the high costs of big props, assistants, travel, advertising, etc which that style of magic requires.

There are only a few hundred magicians consistently making a full-time living performing stage magic and only a couple dozen consistently making a really good living. Whereas there are hundreds of thousands of hobbyists who've discovered learning and performing magic can be really fun.