As expected, most networks are under a heavy load on the holidays. You have thousands, potentially millions of new users worldwide, and the network isn't ready to take that kind of beating on the spot.
On Christmas morning Nintendo reported that there were myriad issues with their online capabilities, ranging from eShop connection problems to general network/online play snafus, and that status persisted into the day after Christmas with intermittent disconnects.
Now, it's stabilized, possibly just because people are going back to work.
Network [Nintendo]
via destructoid http://ift.tt/2Ce3iIN