Partiful, the New York-based event-planning app that’s taking on older solutions like Evite, Eventbrite, and Facebook Events, has been named Google’s app of the year, the tech giant announced on Monday as part of its “best apps and games of 2024” list. The list also highlighted the top game, AFK Journey, alongside other category winners like best multi-device apps, hidden gems, and those devoted to specific platforms, like watches or TVs, among other things.
Partiful was founded in 2020 by Palanitr alums Joy Tao and Shreya Murthy, and it raised a $20 million Series A1 round in late 2022. The round was led by Andreessen Horowitz and brought Partiful’s total funding to $27.34 million, valuing the company pre-money at $120 million, according to data from PitchBook. Abstract Ventures, Initialized Capital Management, ACME Capital, GV, New Enterprise Associates, and Benchmark also participated in the round.
Dubbed a Gen Z favorite thanks to its younger user base, Partiful lets anyone design event pages and invite their friends from a link, often sent through text messages. Though users don’t need the app to respond to party invites, Partfiful event organizers can use the app to manage RSVPs, send updates, upload pics, add questionnaires, and take advantage of other party-planning duties, like raising funds, if needed, or limiting the number of spots. The app also lets users track their party and event invites in one place and sync that information over to their preferred calendar.
The company said its monthly active users had ranged the “millions” by the end of 2023.
The app is an interesting choice to become Google Play’s “App of the Year” given that much of its user base is on iOS.
According to data from analytics firm Appfigures, Partiful has added 1,077,358 downloads so far this year, but 95% of those were from the Apple App Store. Built with React Native, Partiful is most popular in the U.S.; the country accounts for 92% of its App Store downloads and 97% of the total on Google Play. Its weekly downloads grew by 4x this year, and Appfigures says and it saw a recent spike on November 1, which drove 71,000 downloads for the week.
Other app and games winners on Monday include fantasy RPG AFK Journey as its Best Game of 2024, Max as the best “multi-device” app, and Clash of Clans as the best multi-device game.
Other category winners include:
The full list, including winning games and books, is available here.