The PlayStation 5 is hard to find 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, launch day, 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. You might also consider joining the Stock Informer Discord channel to receive notifications whenever the consoles are restocked.
But here's a quick rundown of what retailers have planned for the week of Thanksgiving and Black Friday in the United States:
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BJ's
BJ's went live with a PS5 bundle the weekend before Black Friday, according to Wario64. While it costs $639.99 instead of the normal $499.99 price, the bundle also comes with two DualSense controllers and Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales - Ultimate Edition. If you were already looking to pick up this Spider-Man game or another controller, it's not a terrible deal.
Unfortunately, the bundle has since gone out of stock and the page for it has been taken down. With Black Friday approaching, it's still worth keeping an eye on BJ's in case they list a new PlayStation 5 bundle, especially if you're already a member.
Kohl's
Kohl's has also listed PS5 bundles, but it's a lot riskier. There was a bundle available on Sunday but the listing has since been taken down.
Like BJ's, Kohl's listed PS5 bundles over the weekend, and a lot of people were able to pre-order through them. Unfortunately, Kohl's has canceled several PS5 orders over the weekend before Thanksgiving week. The retailer could potentially put more bundles up for sale as we approach Black Friday. Just know that if you pre-order there, your order may potentially get canceled.
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.
We do 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. Walmart's website says that it will also add more consoles to its stock at 9 p.m. Eastern on November 25, 2020 — which is the day before Thanksgiving in America. (Note, the timing of this restock was originally 7 p.m. Eastern, but it has since shifted.) When that date and time roll around, make sure you are refreshing the PS5 or PS5 Digital Edition store pages.
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, with the most recent being November 19. 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. Thankfully, Sony has updated the queue to inform you when the units do sold out.
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.
Best Buy had additional PS5 and PS5 Digital Edition stock on Sunday, November 22. Those sales went live around 5 a.m. Eastern and were quickly sold out. An ad for Best Buy notes that additional stock will be available online, but based on the retailer's FAQ, those November 22 units may have been the extent of it.
There's no way to know when more supplies might be added, but be sure to check the PS5 page and/or the PS5 Digital Edition page to see.
GameStop
As the most notable gaming retailer, GameStop will obviously get some new PS5 consoles ahead of the holiday rush.
The official GameStop weekly ad for Black Friday confirms that "all stores will have a minimum of two PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X consoles at store opening." But this will be in-stores as long as supplies last. Stores open at 7 a.m. Eastern on November 27, 2020 (Black Friday).
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, along with the collection of other bundles as well. The company may receive other stock updates as well.
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 extensions 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.
Target
As of this writing, it doesn't seem like Target will have any further stock during the week of Black Friday. The retailer's weekly ad lists some next-gen games and peripherals — like the DualSense controller — but no consoles. That probably means there won't be any further stock until sometime after.
Regardless, feel free to check the listings for PS5 Digital Edition and PS5 standard.
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