Two same length words are $d$-equivalent if they have same descent set and same underlying alphabet. In particular, two same length permutations are $d$-equivalent if they have same descent set. The popularity of a pattern in a set of words is the overall number of copies of the pattern within the words of the set. We show the far-from-trivial fact that two patterns are $d$-equivalent if and only if they are equipopular over any $d$-equivalence class, and this equipopularity does not follow obviously from a trivial equidistribution.