Did Sonic really lose to Mario?

polygon.com:

Al Nilsen, a former Sega of America marketing director, tells it like this: There was a time in the early 1990s where Sonic the Hedgehog was more popular in the United States than Mickey Mouse. He’s based this on something called a “Q Score,” or “quotient score,” which ranks consumer appeal and familiarity of brands, assigned by a company called Marketing Evaluations.

Sure, Sega had Nintendo and its mascot, Mario, in its sights: The comparison and rivalry between early consoles and characters had been present for decades. But Mickey Mouse was the “golden character” everyone was chasing, according to former Sega of America director of marketing services Ellen Beth Van Buskirk Knapp. Mario, she said, wasn’t so far behind the Disney mouse at the time — he was often the second most beloved and recognized character.

“The higher the Q score, the more highly regarded the item or person is,” Knapp said. “We worked very hard at enhancing that Q and initially, that meant we had to make believers out of traditionalists. I remember a meeting at Coca-Cola where the chief marketing executive wore sunglasses and gave us 10 minutes of his time. We did not convert that one. But we did get Sonic on cereal boxes and in kids’ meal boxes. As a result, his fame grew.”

At the height of his popularity, Sonic reached that top spot. Sonic was everywhere: His games were undeniable hits, he starred in cartoons, his toys were in McDonald’s Happy Meals, his face adorned cereal boxes, and his large blue body flew high above crowds at the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.

He didn’t hold onto that top spot for long, though. As time went on, Sega struggled to keep up Sonic’s quality and consistency, and it struggled to compete as a hardware manufacturer –