Given that it’s been one full week since PS5 consoles have been available anywhere, suspicions are that the next PS5 restock is right around the corner. Even when restocks are infrequent, it’s rare to go more than a few days without at least one company announcing a restock. All you need is a quick heads-up on where and when.
Take Walmart — it’s been a few weeks since the retailer had a big PS5 restock, but yesterday it offered up the Xbox Series X, which is equally hard to find. This indicates that a Walmart PS5 restock is likely to appear in the afternoon (or late morning if you’re on the West Coast). Similarly, Best Buy’s last PS5 restock was nearly two week ago, and it’s expected to have one before the end of the week.
If you’d rather not wait to get your hands on a PS5 console, your best option is to accept a higher price tag through StockX or eBay. Here are some of our tips, tricks and advice to help you snag your PS5:
- If you see someone offering to sell you a console on Twitter, it’s almost certainly a scam. Avoid these people.
- Where applicable, use an app to complete a purchase instead of a browser. Not only are apps frequently faster than mobile browsers, but also it’s easy to use an app and a browser at the same time if you’re trying to buy on multiple computers.
- PS5 restocks are a lot more common in the afternoon and evening than in the morning. Chances of an unplanned restock tend to go up dramatically after 10 a.m. PT (1 p.m. ET), so if you’re wondering when to check, that’s usually the best time to start.
- PS5 restocks almost never happen on weekends, unless they’re announced ahead of time.
- If a restock starts and you immediately see “Out of Stock” on the screen, do not give up. Refresh the screen a few times and keep trying. Some retailers release the consoles in waves to keep bots from getting all of them.
- Have an account set up and logged in for any retailers you’ll be shopping at. Speaking from personal experience, it’s devastating to get a console in your cart and then miss out because you had to waste precious seconds entering payment and shipping info.
Over the last period, the biggest retailers have made changes to the checkout process to offer peace of mind and to keep bots from buying all the consoles and selling them for more elsewhere. The most recent change in the PS5 restock game has been paid access — that means once you buy a subscription, you’ll hear about the next PS5 restock either earlier than anyone else or exclusively for your club.
Our best tips to get a console
With this new subscription system rolling out across GameStop, Best Buy, Walmart and even Amazon in some cases, it’s important to point out that getting a console through these services is still not guaranteed. The queue fills up fast, and consoles stay in stock for only a few minutes in most cases. Every time a PS5 restock happens, social media fills with people describing how they experienced glitches in the process and how the consoles ended up being gone entirely.
It’s unreasonable to sign up and pay for every service, but that’s where we can help. We’re constantly tracking the best way for you to get your hands on a PS5. And we’ll explain below what you can do to increase your odds before the buy button lights up.
Why is the PS5 so tough to find?
There are three big reasons why you’re still struggling to get a PS5. The first is the most obvious: The system is really popular. Sony says the PS5 is its best-selling console and has already sold more than 13 million units since launch.
The second reason is the current chip shortage impacting most of the world’s electronics. Sony did say it has secured enough chips to meet its goal of 14.8 million consoles for the fiscal year.
As for the last reason, it comes down to bots. Resellers are using software to purchase a massive number of PS5s at once, leaving only a few for actual humans to buy. Retailers added various bot protections during PS5 restocks, but these restrictions only hamper resellers so much.
Where has the PS5 been available recently?
We keep track of every PS5 restock and maintain this list here of the most likely places you’ll find them, and when the PS5 was last available there.
Which early-access service should I pay for?
Lots of companies now limit access to a PS5 to a subscription, but each one is a little different. Here’s the full breakdown of how each one works.
- Amazon Prime: This one is pretty straightforward. In many cases the only way to buy a PS5 from Amazon is by being a Prime subscriber or by signing up for the Treasure Truck text service. There’s no extra fee outside of the standard Prime subscription, but you likely can’t access the PS5 restock unless you’re subscribed.
- GameStop PowerUp Rewards Pro: Many PS5 restocks from GameStop start an hour earlier for you if you have signed up for this rewards program. This works best when GameStop announces the restock ahead of time or emails its subscribers to let them know a restock is coming. This subscription service costs $15 per year, and includes a ton of extra perks.
- Walmart Plus: This service was built by Walmart just to offer early access during sales events, and that includes a PS5 restock. The rules for this early access vary; in some cases PS5 restocks can be entirely limited to subscribers or it can be an early-access window of 1 to 4 hours before the general population has access. Walmart charges $13 per month or $98 per year for this service. There’s a 15-day free trial currently available if you’re not sure it’s for you, but you only get early access if you pay for that first month.
- Best Buy Totaltech: If you want special access to the Geek Squad for installations and tech support, as well as extensions on warranty purchases, this is the service for you. If you just want this for early access to a PS5 restock, Best Buy is asking you to pay $200 per year and that is a lot. Best Buy does occasionally limit access to a PS5 restock to only Totaltech subscribers, but most of the time those restocks are made available to the public later.
For the moment, the service that seems most useful to most people is Walmart Plus. There are more restocks at Walmart than most other places right now, and that subscription can increase your odds of getting a console dramatically. You’re still going to have to be quick and accept that you may not get the console on the first try.
How do I increase my chances of getting a PS5?
Major retailers like Walmart, GameStop, Amazon, Target and Best Buy don’t usually give much notice ahead of a restock. Sometimes they’ll have a restock in the morning, other times in the afternoon and, in some cases, even in the middle of the night. Here are some tips to help you get the jump on the competition.
First tip: Don’t wait until you see an alert for a PS5 inventory drop. Check the links at major retailers for stock updates daily or even multiple times a day. (We’ve got the links all lined up below.) If you do happen upon some PS5 availability, go all-in with as many browsers and devices as possible. On a desktop, for example, open the retailer’s page in Chrome, Firefox and Edge. Then do the same on your phone and tablet. The more devices and browsers, the better. It’s like with lottery tickets: The more you have, the better your chances of winning.
Second tip: Create accounts at the different retailers and make sure you’re already logged in if you’re going to try to get a PS5. Make sure all your shipping, bill and payment info is updated on whatever device you can buy from, whether it’s a laptop, desktop or phone. This makes checking out a lot faster, which is crucial as retailers’ sites get quickly bogged down, leading to people losing their chance of securing a PS5.
Third tip: Keep checking back with this post and follow CNET and Oscar Gonzalez on Twitter for updates.
Where is it safe to buy a PS5 if I’m OK with paying extra?
If you’re starting to crack and considering buying a PS5 right now (and we know that with the number of big PS5 games dropping over the next few months, the pressure is on), you can do so, but at the cost of a hefty markup on sites like eBay or StockX. On eBay, for example, we’ve seen PS5 units priced over $1,000, although prices have slowly made their way down to approximately $700.