There's been a fairly large focus in here on sales numbers, which doesn't necessarily equate with the idea of a "household name," and also on just what we feel should be included, which will be informed in no small part by our immersion in the video game realm.
It might be worth considering that these are all brands that are eminently recognizable, with style, characters, and/or iconography that easily makes the origin known, even if someone lacks the knowledge of what the series is called. Someone might even still refer to Link as Zelda, but still recognize what the series is (or the also obvious example of Metroid, who has historically been challenged in the crawling department). "Household name" might not carry the full understanding of what the list is going for.
Without some sort of methodology to track how these IP were selected for the list, we might assume there's some amount of arbitrary reasoning directing some of it -- especially given the "franchises that have become household names worldwide, including [...]" verbiage, which could indicate the list isn't meant to be all-encompassing --, but the list generally makes sense.
Completely anecdotally, but I've known people who weren't particularly big into games who still knew
Pikmin, and the little plant buggers do keep popping up in various locations and circumstances.
Fire Emblem and
Xenoblade are big with some segments of the dedicated gaming populace, but they won't yet have supplanted these brands as far as the general populace is concerned, if they ever will -- and it seems likely that people who know of these will also know other franchises here, such as
Metroid or, yes,
Pikmin. And, while these do have some iconography and recurring characters of their own, this hasn't permeated to the same extent where the same general populace will immediately recognize it. These other series are just more inherently recognizable at a glance. Is it being suggested that, if one were to poll the general populace and show them
Metroid,
Pikmin,
Fire Emblem, and
Xenoblade, participants would be more likely to recognize the latter two than the former?
This is also why the lack of
Smash Bros. makes sense. It's massive, yes, but not inherently recognizable on its own. So much of its iconography, so many of its characters and locations, so much belongs to the franchises that meet up within it. The logo is the most recognizable aspect that is its own, but it's overshadowed by one of the series' great strengths: the clashing of various other franchises within. It isn't lesser for this.
It's
Pokémon.
While, yes, a household name, where most people will probably recognize at least Pikachu, it's the only non-internal franchise on the list and singlehandedly unexplains Kirby's absence.
Kirby is eminently recognizable and well-known. If the lack of anything here surprises me, it's this.
Now, what might be interesting is the franchises that fall below these upper echelons. Series like
Star Fox and
Kid Icarus seem poised to break through if ever given the proper chance and handling.
Uprising focused in a lot on characters and greatly expanded the cast, which seems a way to draw and maintain interest, and even provides a stronger identity on which the series could hang different gameplay types. This could readily be built up around its own clear identity.
Star Fox has a distinct aesthetic and cast of characters, much the same sort of core that is developing in
Kid Icarus, but has fallen somewhat to the wayside. I do think it too could be built back up.
I haven't downloaded
Pikmin Bloom, or, really, anything else of that ilk, but I got
Pikmin 3 DX ages ago, long before having a Switch itself.
It's definitely on the list of things to get to in the near future.
Now bring the other games over.
Also, shoutout to
MondoMega for some good posts earlier in the thread.
