The PlayStation 5 is hard to find post-launch for anyone who was not able to secure a pre-order well in advance. New PS5 units went live at some retailers on November 12, but these units were quickly claimed as well. And the same has been happening on a rolling basis since then with various retailers putting up additional stock at seemingly random times.
If you’re still looking to secure a PS5, some retailers will be adding new stock ahead of the Black Friday rush. There are several useful Twitter accounts to follow that offer updates on restocks on a rolling basis. We suggest following them and clicking on the bell icon to receive push notifications whenever these accounts tweet.
@PS5StockAlerts, @Wario64, and @IGNDeals each offer updates about restocks, so it’s definitely worth subscribing to their tweet notifications.
But here’s a quick rundown of what retailers have planned over the next week:
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Walmart
Walmart has also been a fairly consistent PS5 retailer, and it will have some more systems in stock by the time Black Friday rolls around. If you’re looking to get a next-generation console very soon, Walmart is making some more stock available on November 19 at 3 p.m. Eastern. It’s likely that the retailer could make more systems available before official Black Friday sales, so be sure to keep an eye on social media for their announcements.
The Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S will also get restocked at that time
That said, we also have a firm date and time for when Walmart will for sure have even more PS5 and PS5 Digital Edition units available ahead of Black Friday. According to @PS5StockAlerts, Walmart will also add more consoles to its stock at 7 p.m. Eastern on November 25, 2020 — which is the day before Thanksgiving in America. When that date and time roll around, make sure you are refreshing the PS5 or PS5 Digital Edition store pages so you try to purchase the few that will be available at that time.
In previous waves, Walmart made it fairly easy to add a console to your cart, but when you went through the process of finalizing payment and shipping info, you might get pushed into an error screen and have to restart. This could very well happen again, and it doesn’t seem like there’s any way to avoid the above “Oh, deer” error message.
Sony Direct
One of the most consistent retailers that have added more and more stock at different times is Sony’s Direct store page.
New consoles are made available on the website every couple of days, and all you need is the link to the PlayStation 5 and PS5 Digital Edition store page. After that, you will be put in a queue with a progress bar and an estimate of how much longer you’ll have to wait. After that, you might be able to buy a PS5. However, there’s a strong chance that the latest batch of consoles will be sold out by the time you exit the queue.
While getting a console this way is one of the safest methods, it requires a lot of waiting and a bit of luck. Some loopholes previously to allow users to skip the queue by hitting the escape button before the browser began the queue, but these have since been seemingly patched out by Sony.
Keep trying your luck on PlayStation Direct and you should get a PS5 eventually.
Best Buy
Best Buy has had issues with its website whenever next-gen console restocks happen, but they will be one of the storefronts to have more PS5s in stock just before Thanksgiving and Black Friday.
@PS5StockAlerts says that the PS5 and PS5 Digital Edition store pages will allow for the purchase of new units on Sunday, November 22. Unfortunately, no specific time was shared, but be sure to keep an eye on PS5 page and/or the PS5 Digital Edition to see.
GameStop
As the most notable gaming retailer, GameStop will obviously get some new PS5 consoles ahead of the holiday rush.
@PS5StockReports reports that GameStop will have new systems on Black Friday. This means new systems will be available online at 7 a.m. Eastern on November 27, 2020. While these will probably sell out quickly, be sure to keep an eye on the PS5 and PS5 Digital Edition pages on GameStop’s website when Black Friday rolls around.
Amazon
@PS5StockAlerts claims that “Amazon likes to do surprise drops, so it’s hard to say exactly when they’ll go live again.” But it’s true that since PS5’s launch, the stock has seemingly been added at random on the website. Amazon managed to list some more stock on November 18, but it was not announced beforehand.
So it’s worth checking Amazon’s PS5 and PS5 Digital Edition listings frequently. Google extension like OctoShop make this process a bit easier as they will notify you as soon as new stock is available. If you see that consoles are in stock, try to order them ASAP because these Amazon store pages have a habit of crashing when new PS5s become available.
Still, there’s no telling how long Amazon will take to ship the consoles. Amazon warned anyone who pre-ordered a console back in September that they might not be delivered on launch day, so particularly with the holiday shopping season fast approaching, the retailer may take much longer to ship consoles.
The PlayStation 5 is out now!
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