When I navigate to https://www.reddit.com/r/popular/ the filters say they sort by Hot "Everywhere".
If I change the location filter to "Canada" ( https://www.reddit.com/r/popular/?geo_filter=CA ) I see the exact same front page listings.
Finally if I explicitly change the location filter to "Everywhere" ( https://www.reddit.com/r/popular/?geo_filter=GLOBAL ) I finally see a different set of front page listings.