What’s up with the wave of Netflix dmc fans saying that the show is the whole reason why the franchise is still relevant in 2025
Because they've got nothing substantive from the show that they can actually argue is better than the games so instead they go for low blows. Adi Shankar of course started it because the man has an ego the size of a countey. He posted that the "success" of the DMC Netflix show resulted in DMC5 selling over 10 million units purely because Capcom posted the fact it sold 10 Million units a couple months after the show dropped.
This of course ignores the fact that DMC5 had sold somewhere in the realm of near to or over 8 million units long before the Netflix show came out. It ignores the fact that the DMC subreddit (which is literal hell on earth I won't deny that but still) was still a decently active subreddit with regular posts about anything ranging from "look at this cool combo I did", to "I am the storm that is approaching" memes, to "do you want a Sparda prequel game". The fandom was not dead, and the series by Capcom standards was hardly dead, they've got way more properly dead IPs in comparison.
Now I'm not stupid, I know that there will have been a not insignificant number of people who bought the game after watching the show, especially with how loud fans were being with begging people to interact with the source material over Adi's shitty Iraq War fanfiction. But I don't think it is anywhere near as large a contribution as Adi Shankar and his fans think it was. As I said pre release of the Netflix show DMC5 was well on its way to 10 million units sold anyway. On top of that Capcom have sales regularly and often highlight DMC5 on sales banners which likely contributed to the over 10 million sales a lot more than a bad Netflix show.
But even if all of those units had come from fans of the Netflix show... It's irrelevant because they'd have been left disappointed and would likely not be repeat customers for Capcom (which is all Capcom really cares about) because the tone, story, characterisation and point of the games are almost nothing like the Netflix show. So if you liked the Netflix show it's entirely possible you'd not like the DMC games. So it's hardly a great advertisement when it's falsely advertising the DMC series as something it isn't.
I've said since before release I felt the Netflix show was gonna be bad purely because about 6 months before release I remember reading an article about an interview Capcom did that basically said they were distancing themselves from the project. Meaning they'd seen it, likely hated it, but the contract was signed, the thing already made and they'd already spent the money given to them for the right to use the IP.
Since the release on Capcom's socials the Netflix has been mentioned very little, around release week (not even sure if they kept talking about it for even a whole week honestly), when S2 was announced (and again quickly forgot about again after that) and when it was nominated for The Game Awards. That's it. I think it's quite clear Capcom did not like this show, they will do their bare minimum promotion for it, but mostly they want Adi Shankar to stop calling them.
It will likely win The Game Awards for best adaptation, the competition is hardly steep, and Adi Shankar will get to stroke his ego on the ruins of another franchise. And then most people will forget it ever existed. Maybe when S2 drops there might be a small uptick again but I won't watch S2. I know many others who won't. I think its height of popularity has peaked, it does not have the same good word of mouth as the Castlevania show did (although I also tried to watch that and found it boring and I know fans of the games were not huge fans of it but I know very little about Castlevania so I won't comment further). Partly cause as I've explained before even removing the DMC coat of paint, the plot is bad.
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