>>25549895I don't really think Sonic was less popular than Mario for at least a little while due to the sheer media exposure Sonic got dwarfing Mario. Sonic had two cartoons and shitton of comics whereas Mario only had the SMB Super Show and very few comics than ran long.
The main point though is that Sonic was meant to be edgy and cool and have "attitude", he was basically conceived as Mario's anti-Christ. Because of this he became pretty much irrelevant once the 90's were over, and in the end only autistics WOULD still care about him and his flashy levels and fucktarded "attitude."