In general, it was Nintendo. They have a lot of brands that sell. Zelda had a rebound with Nintendo Switch for example.
Metroid? Sold damn well under Nintendo Switch. For a franchise that doesn't get a lot of marketing? Geez. So, if that's the case, then Metroid is a niche onto itself.
Mario? Mario fucking sells, bro.
SEGA was at its peak with Genesis, but that's because Nintendo got complacent with NES. Genesis had some of the best video games ever released. I'm sorry, that's just facts. The console was weak, but the developers used it so well it made Nintendo look stupid sometimes. Atari even tried marketing their Jaguar with "better graphics and games." But it sold poorly because of how poorly executed it was. I almost bought it, but I am glad I didn't. I wish M2 was released, because it was the closest thing we got to a true next gen console. PlayStation and PlayStation 2 killed EVERYTHING in its path. Dreamcast? Great console, but SEGA made too many mistakes, dumb mistakes. Saturn got BLACKLISTED. Dreamcast was left to dry by... Electronic Arts. I'm sure there was more issues, like the pirating. Partnering with Microsoft was the actual scarlett letter.