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Top 10 DS games on the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection

Animal Crossing, Mario Kart DS and Pokemon ruling the airwaves

Top 10 DS games on the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection
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This is the first of a regular features tracking the most popular games on the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection, so it makes sense to start at the beginning.

The Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection is the official Nintendo-run gaming service, which enables you to play the online modes of games that support the service for free. All you need is access to a wireless connection. It doesn't matter whether it's your home wireless network or a commercial service available in a cafe, although, of course, you might have to pay for some commercial services.

The best place to start out is Nintendo's extensive website, where you can find all the free wi-fi hotspots near your house, school or office, using the neat search function. You can also check out Pocket Gamer's own Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection How To.

There's certainly plenty of choice today, with over 50 wi-fi-enabled games supported and dozens more in development (although perhaps not quite as much support so far as we'd originally hoped for).

Crucially, the more popular a game is on the service, the quicker it will be to find opponents and the easier it will be to find players who are roughly at your skill level, if you're choosing the 'Rivals' options.

It's also good to understand the best times to try to play games on the service. As you can see from the graph above – which shows the total number of players using the Wi-Fi Connection each day so far in April – more people play at night than during the day, as the red line is generally higher than the blue line. (It's also worth pointing out that a lot of DS players tend to be Americans and their evening starts at least five hours later than ours does in Europe.)

Equally, weekends are more popular than weekdays; as you can see there's are peaks on the blue line during Saturdays.

The top 10 games on the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection
As of: 16th April.

1. Animal Crossing: Wild World (54,663 players)
2. Mario Kart DS (41,052)
3. Pokémon Diamond (34,253, Japan only)
4. Metroid: Prime Hunters (32,503)
5. Pokémon Pearl (29,568, Japan only)
6. Tetris DS (15,724)
7. Jump! Ultimate Stars (14,677, Japan only)
8. Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker (11,489, Japan only)
9. Yu-Gi-Oh! World Championship 2007 (6,019, US/Japan only)
10. Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin (4,933)

(Figures sourced using the WFCstatus tool.)

Don't forget to check back next week to find out how the US release of Pokémons Diamond and Pearl affect the numbers. Or alternatively hit the 'Track It!' button to get an automatic email alert when our next Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection update goes live.

Jon Jordan
Jon Jordan
A Pocket Gamer co-founder, Jon can turn his hand to anything except hand turning. He is editor-at-large at PG.biz which means he can arrive anywhere in the world, acting like a slightly confused uncle looking for the way out. He likes letters, cameras, imaginary numbers and legumes.