Forget signing up for a gym membership or making headway on any other resolution -- for tens of thousands of spouses, New Year's Day was spent seeking out an extramarital affair.
Dating sites tend to report an uptick in sign-ups come the new year, and Ashley Madison, an online dating service for married people looking to cheat, is no exception. On Friday, the site reported that they experienced record sign-ups on New Year's Day, as 27,511 married Americans logged on for the first time to look for an affair partner (that's a new member every three seconds!).
According to a press release, the site's traffic was up 20.7 percent from New Year's Day last year and 344 percent higher than a typical day. Men were more likely to sign up -- a whopping 16,507 filled out a profile for the site -- while 11,004 women reportedly logged on for the first time.
Noel Biderman, the founder of Ashley Madison, says the sign-up numbers didn't exactly come as a shock to him. “Many people re-examine their lives and changes they want to make on special occasions and holidays, particularly the start of the new year," he said. "If expectations aren’t met on a night like New Year’s Eve, that can signify the last straw for a lot of couples."
Check out the slideshow below to see the U.S. cities with the highest numbers of sign-ups on New Year's Day:
