That's a good way to put it. Pokemon also has a show, movies, comics, a card game, etc. while Mario (to my knowledge) only has games.

Mario franchise lifetime sales according to VGC are listed at 558.40 million
Pokemon franchise lifetime sales are listed at 248.82.
Although Mario is 11 years older than Pokemon, although I subtracted sales from all Mario games from 1995 to prior and Mario sales from 1996 to present accumulated to 399.36 Million to Pokemon's number. 
So upon this glance, the answer should be an obvious no. However, given the absolute craze and gargantuan success of Pokemon GO, the Pokemon brand, in terms of popularity, recognition, etc. is currently at an all-time high! It's a worldwide phenomenon once again! And Nintendo's stocks are reflecting it! And I personally think that no other franchise for Nintendo, not even Mario, could have been capable of this on mobile devices! That's not to say they won't be successful there, because they most certainly will if Nintendo puts in the right effort and management. But I honestly don't think that any of their other properties could be capable of THIS! Only Pokemon! 

So I'm not going to say that it has, or that it hasn't. But I ask you guys?
In your opinion, with all the types of hype, height, popularity, and all kinds of levels of them that Pokemon has reached now thanks to GO, has Pokemon surpassed Mario as Nintendo's no. 1 franchise?

Pokémon is bigger than Mario since A LOT.

And is not even close.

In a near future i imagine those should be the bigger Nintendo series (in term of success, not overall sales):

1) Pokémon

2) Splatoon

3) Mario

4) Smash Bros

5) Animal Crossing

So people who were in the mid to late 30s or older who grew up with the NES will say Mario. 
On the other hand people who are in the late teens to mid-20s who grew up with the Game Boy during the initial Boom will say Pokemon?
Makes sense. 

It has always slightly irked me that the mainline Pokemon games have never been on home consoles... Perhaps NX will have something to say about it.