Houston kept the world’s #1 party spot again, according to new data by Evite, the world's leading digital platform for bringing people together.

Top party cities are defined by the number of Evite events planned in each city across the U.S. over the past 12 months. Houston had 70,000+ events in 2018 – a 22% increase from 2017- with over 2.5 million invited guests. Additionally, Houston is considered one of the more “friendly” cities – with 76% of hosts offering guests to bring along +1s as an option.

“Our purpose is much broader than simply sending out invitations–it’s to bring people together face-to-face, and we were thrilled to see an increase across the U.S. in consumers prioritizing social gatherings this year,” says Victor Cho, CEO of Evite. “Societally, consumers are stressed and overwhelmed by technology, social media, work, and politics, but are escaping the everyday by creating moments to remain focused on their relationships - which will always prevail over the cultural noise."

The top 10 party cities as are followed:

Houston - 70k events

Chicago – 62.7K events

Austin – 55.8K events

San Diego – 52.2K events

Los Angeles – 50K events

Atlanta – 47K events

New York- 42.4K events

San Jose – 41.1K events

Dallas – 40K events

Seattle – 38.1K events

Trending themes for the year include unicorns, florals, fiestas and Paw Patrol. Additionally, the gender reveal trend continued to skyrocket with a 70% search increase YoY.

Speaking of parties, Evite is predicting the most celebrated night of the year for hosting parties: Saturday, December 15, 2018. Based on YoY Evite data for the past 3 years, the middle Saturday of December has notoriously ranked #1 for hosted parties each year and 2018 is proving to be no different, with over 3 million guests expected to be invited to parties on Dec. 15.