You forget that this is the first FE related game to hit the market overseas since Shadow Dragon came out (which was in 09 I believe?), so much time had passed since then and now. Also, it was released for the most recent gaming console, which gave people another game to play on their 3DS. That's why I think it gained so many new fans of the series at once.
I'm not a fan of Awakening either (of course, I can't say anything bad about it when I haven't even played it) because it's all the fandom talks about nowadays. In fact, I think the old timey FE games are way better than Awakening, but to each his own I guess. Yeah, it's been a year and the hype still hasn't died down yet, but I think things will simmer down soon. Hopefully, Awakening introduced new fans to the series so they'll want to try the other titles too (and maybe enjoy those games better than Awakening) :)