I don't think DmC made DMC more popular.
Devil May Cry sold 2.16m (PS2)
DMC 2 sold 1.7M (PS2)
DMC 3 sold 1.3m (PS2)
DMC 3 sold 1.3m (PS2)
DMC 4 sold 2.3M (PS3/Xbox360)
Source
DmC sold 1.15m (PS3/Xbox360)
So as you can see, the sales aren't supportive of DmC making DMC more popular or draw more attention.
If you compare DmC's sale with DMC 3 even if DmC was on 2 platforms, DMC 3 which was on one platform had 150K more units sold than DmC.
And i am saying is that, the reason DmC got so much attention, which was then projected on DMC when the DmC buyers liked DmC, is not because of DmC itself but because of the fans reaction to DmC. The fans reacted, gaming media reported on it and people noticed this.
Compared to DMC 4, DmC has sold over 1M units less. THAT IS NOT A GOOD INDICATION that DmC has made DMC more popular.
i think you're misunderstanding what i'm trying to say. DmC didn't make the series more popular as a whole. it brought back fame to the series due to the controversy. the interest was there it just needed a spark. DmC was the spark