So I did a little more sales research thanks to VGC, to further compare Mario and Pokemon.
*I only did the handhelds because if I included consoles as well, that just wouldn't be fair to Pokemon since there are no mainline Pokemon games on Nintendo consoles.
So it looks like this:
3DS: Mario - 42.70 Million Pokemon - 28.33 Million (This of course does not include Sun/Moon for obvious reasons)
DS: Mario - 92.14 Million Pokemon - 78.73 Million
GBA: Mario - 33.34 Million Pokemon - 38.12 Million
GB/GBC Mario - 47.03 Million Pokemon - 85.40 Million (PokeMania I)
Total: Mario - 215.21 Pokemon - 230.58
So it is true that Pokemon reigns supreme on handhelds, ioverall, but iit's a little closer than some of us might think.
It absolutely destroyed Mario on the original GameBoy, Mario closed the gap considerably during the GBA life cycle and he eventually took over on the DS and currently holds the lead on the 3DS... for now...
Hardware Comparison Threads:
Current Thread
Is Hardware Getting TOO Powerful?
Older Threads:
PlayStation/Xbox/Switch: 2022 Edition
PlayStation/Xbox/Switch Hardware Battle: 2021 Edition!
PlayStation 4/Xbox One/Nintendo Switch: 2019 vs. 2020
PlayStation 4/Xbox One/Nintendo Switch: 2018 vs. 2019
PlayStation 4/Xbox One/Nintendo Switch: 2017 vs. 2018
PlayStation 4: 2015 vs. 2016 vs. 2017