well by franchise sense yes the plumber's corperation has a hedgehog's corperation for there pet.
by character... The mascot Mario is older, more known, and popular every concieveable age bracket and focus group. Nintendo Thanks ron jeremy for that
or was it the other way around
But then it's like pitting Superman against Spiderman. Spidey can't beat the Krytonian kid from smallville but has been seen as a more endering character. a believable character without a god complex. Lately franchise Spidey been beating franchise Superman. hmm.. maybe Superman and Captain marvel would be a better comparison.
Again i think the original poster was pitting the characters against each other and not the franchise, or companies that own the marketing rights to them.