Real reporting: PS5 restock rumors persistent during Labor Day weekend, but these rarely take place on weekends and have never happened nationwide at a retailer on a Sunday in 2021. We're tracking PlayStation 5 consoles in real-time at a dozen stores in the US, and it's been 24 days since there's been a Best Buy PS5 restock of the $499 PS5 Disc and $399 PS5 Digital Edition. Since then, we've seen US retailers like GameStop, Amazon, Target and Walmart restock the PS5 – often multiple times. Our exclusive sources have tipped us off to the fact that GameStop is readying consoles for next week.
Best Buy PS5 restock news: September 5
The last Best Buy PS5 restock date was August 12, 2021, and the time was 2:35pm EDT. Before that date, Best Buy had PS5 stock almost weekly, so they're certainly trying to amass PS5 consoles before having another restock.
Many other sites were boldly predicting a Friday, September 3 sale, but that was just guessing on their part. Now they're predicting a restock for Sunday, September 5. It would be more accurate to predict the PS5 will be in stock on a day that ends in 'day'. Those sources aren't reliable.
Instead, we've turned to tracking the Best Buy product page 24/7, and then tweeting out when the PS5 is in stock. This gives you a fighting chance to buy it before bots scoop up the console so that resellers can sell it for twice as much money.
People are frustrated with Best Buy's PS5 rollout
The weeks-long delay has naturally left people confused with Best Buy, often tweeting at us frustrated with the retailer's holdup, asking "What's taking so long?" Unlike Walmart, Best Buy sells PS5 consoles online when it has them on hand in regional warehouses. It then delivers the PS5 to individual stores and requires buyers to pick it up in person. That takes three to five days.
The point of our PS5 restock tracker is to keep track of the dates, to know when the next stock is likely, and issue notifications when the console is in stock. This prevents you from having to check Best Buy and other retailer websites in the US constantly.
However, people are getting erroneous information and then trying to do fresh Best Buy every minute when there's no actual restock happening. That's a waste of their time and bogs down retail websites for no reason. Some sites, like GameStop, end up banning people (or their IP address) after so many refreshing, thinking they're a bot.
So when will Best Buy restock the PS5?
We're expecting the PS5 restock to take place next week, as Best Buy has usually done back-to-back weeks of restocks and then takes four or five weeks off. Next week, after Labor Day Weekend, we'll be at four weeks since the last PS5 stock was available through the Best Buy website.
Special note: at no time during 2021 has PS5 been available in stores. You can't buy it in-store at Best Buy, yet people keep asking us if that's possible. In fact, no major retailer in the US has had the PlayStation 5 in stock in stores in all of 2021.
Best Buy PS5 restock expert advice
So, once we send out Best Buy PS5 restock alert, what do you do? Getting our Twitter alert is only half the battle, and Best Buy doesn't properly explain how to get the console in your cart. We'll detail the steps here.
First, you'll want to click the link to take you to the product page and chose either PS5 Disc or PS5 Digital. PS5 Digital costs $399, but we prefer PS5 Disc at $499 for two reasons. First, disc-based games always get cheaper faster, so you'll have access to older PS4 games and cheap PS5 games discounted a few weeks after they launch. You'll save more than $100 in the long run. Second, PS5 Disc inventory is always more plentiful at every US retailer we track.
Second, click on the yellow add-to-cart button to buy the PS5. It'll turn gray and give you a message asking you to wait for one more step. Best Buy doesn't tell you this, but that one more step is to simply wait and not refresh the page (unlike almost every other American retailer). Wait it out and the gray button will turn yellow again. As soon as this happens click that button again and it'll be added to your cart.
Many people get stuck at the gray button, and this is because Best Buy is a hidden randomized countdown clock, giving you an artificial queue. You can't see the time except if you look at the page code. Bots are able to open up multiple pages in Incognito (opening up multiple tabs won't help you), figure out the shortest time and buy from there.
You can try multiple devices and browsers, but again, opening up another tab on the same browser won't help you buy a PS5 with Best Buy.
