What are Nintendo's Big 3 "core" franchises?

[Cheebee]

SmokedHostage said:

Cheebee said:

Mario, Zelda and Smash. Bros.

Sales-wise, if we're not counting Pokémon.

You forgot Mario Kart, Nintendogs, and the Wii series.

I thought there were no such things as core or casual games, only core or casual players.

I consider MK to be part of the Mario-franchise, Nintendogs is for handhelds (and we're not counting handheld games, according to some people in this thread - that's why I excluded Pokémon), and the Wii series is not core, but casual. No denying that. This thread is about core franchises, check the title!

So, referring to bestselling core games on consoles, I picked Mario, Zelda and Smash. Bros.