It’s all about context.

Swords are hyped up because they’re the weapons of nobility, but, even for the nobility, spears and other polearms dominated close-range combat on Medieval battlefields for the entirety of the Middle Ages.

Swords were sidearms. They were easy to carry on your hip and draw quickly in case you somehow lost your spear, but against spears they have a pretty significant reach disadvantage. One-handed axes tended to be a poor-man’s alternative to a sword, since they require less metal and are more easily repaired or replaced. Maces tended to be used from horseback, and if you were on horseback you were probably wealthy, and you probably also had a lance or a spear as your primary weapon too. (There was really not much distinction between a “lance” or a “spear” back then.)

In the Late Middle Ages, spears evolved became more complex and versatile, too, with the addition of axe heads and hammer heads and hooks in addition to their spearheads, but even still the basic “normal” spear never went out of fashion during that time.

Swords and other smaller weapons, as sidearms, were also very convenient to carry around outside of battlefield contexts. These would be the weapons you would use for your own self-defense while traveling or in case you took a wrong turn into the bad part of town. Even then, a spear is still the better weapon unless you’re in really tight quarters, but there’s no way to holster it. You’d always have to either be carrying it in your hand or putting it on the ground, and that’s a huge pain in the ass.

So, yes, the frequency of sword use is greatly exaggerated by Hollywood and video games, especially within large-scale battles.