DS Online - 1,000,000 Mark Passed! [UPDATE] News

Following TVG's report yesterday that the number of people using Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection was within touching distance of the magic million player mark, the US Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection site today proudly displays that over 1 million players have now taken part in Nintendo's online experience.

Over 26.5 million connections have so far been made in the four months since the service launched at the tail end of 2005, and the figure shows no sign of stopping.

Whether the figure represents the number of gamers using the service in the US alone, or globally, is yet to be confirmed; if it is purely for the US, then Nintendo's strategy has proved to be an even greater success than perhaps they could have hoped.

An official statement from Nintendo is yet to be made; we'll have more shortly...

[UPDATE]

In an official statement Nintendo finally got around to acknowledging the achievement, recognising a gamer in Japan logging on to play Animal Crossing: Wild World as the millionth user - whether or not he'll receive a special prize remains doubtful given the lack of registration details required to access the service.

"Players are embracing our model of a compelling, safe, easy-to-use wireless gaming service," says Reggie Fils-Aime, Nintendo of America's executive vice president of sales & marketing. "Those 1 million users represent more than 27 million game sessions."

The popularity of Nintendo Wi-Fi is set to continue growing, in North America at least, with the March 20th release of Metroid Prime: Hunters and Tetris DS; European finally get a chance to enjoy Animal Crossing: Wild World on March 31st, but have a little longer to wait for Tetris DS on April 21st followed by Metroid Prime Hunters on May 5th.