are the persona games there own series

i mean they seem to be more popular than the actual main series (since some people who have played persona havent even played the main series) and persona 4 golden and persona 4 arena dropped the shin megami tensei label

so are the persona games like a main series now instead of being a spin off because like i said they seem to be the most well known out of all the SMT games maybe its because there more easier to play than most of the SMT games i dunno since the combat in the games are easier to master

so what do you think are the persona games a main series or are they still just a spin off?

If I'm not mistaken, in japan they are just know as Persona, not SMT Persona like they are stateside. i believe they just added the SMT to give the games some recognizably