Those two will be exhausted for sure! And not just them, I think plenty of video game, anime, and all types of Japanese characters will be very active for Tokyo 2020!

Pokemon, the main series titles, sell the console it's on. Mario comes with the console people buy. There is your difference. I don't however think Pokemon Go has made Pokemon pass Mario is cultural status, however. 

Align their launches or their top ten games or their last ten games or something. I think Pokémon win in almost every case.

You left out many Pokemon games. Platinum, HeartGold/SoulSilver, Black/White, and Black2/White2 combined sold over 40 million, and there's the spin-offs namely Mystery Dungeon and Ranger which combined is another 10+ million.

It was a response regarding NSMB, MKDS. And the best selling g Pokémon on the DS, which is Diamond and Pearl.

But if we're including every other game like remakes and spinoffs. Super Mario 64 DS is another 11.06 million and Mario Party DS is another 9 million. Plus there's Partners in Time and Bowser's Inside Story which combine to 5 million. 

And that's just off the top of my head. But right now, Mario still has the lead over Pokémon on the DS

Ah yeah that's true. Atleast mainline Pokemon still beats mainline Mario, well unless you include consoles, but I don't know if that'd be fair. It'll be much easier to tell who sells better post NX as they'll have the same exact playing field, so let's wait til then to make that call. :L

Fair enough.

Mario is bigger in video games. Pokemon is way bigger in media and pop culture.

Yea, like 20 years ago. Everyone knows Pokimon - people at work that ever play any of the games have collections of the toys at their office. It has how many more movies than Mario?

Mario is big for Nintendo gamers, but Pokimon is bigger because it has a more broad appeal.

You could also say the same for Mario. There are figures that people can buy that are Mario related. Heck, here's this as an example of Mario's influence outside of games (the third time I posted this): https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=BpfpkrOZRuk.