I stand corrected, the record is specifically 237 and was indeed broken by at a furality event back on June 8th 2024. The mentioned "last year" confused me thinking it was one in 2023 where it wasn't possible, the adjustment to allow over 200 was done quite close to when the event occurred

It would have to had been the API over counting due to frequent joins / leaves, no instance up until recently this year could have more than 200 join due to technical reasons

I'm posting these tips early mainly so people can plan accordingly ahead of time (and to prevent me forgetting to post them when it's closer to the time)

And finally party responsibly, it's good to have fun but be aware of your limits so that you can enjoy the night. Sleep is nice and nobody really wants to wake up the morning after not feeling too great.

Keep an eye on status.vrchat.com and the VRChat discord (discord.gg/vrchat). These are the two main places any issues would be posted.

Avoid creating instances in regions which are closest to midnight if possible. These regions will be busiest and might become unstable around midnight, other regions however will likely be quieter. This mostly applies to event hosts but is something to be aware of in any case.

Similarly be wary of switching instances during these peak times, if there's a failure with the API but you are already in an instance you'll be safe there so long as you don't leave. Consider yourself snowed in if this happens so be somewhere you'd be fine hanging out for a while.

If you plan on being online during EST or CST new years get on ahead of time, during these hours is when it's most busy and if something is going to go wrong, it'd be during these hours.