Update: The leak has now been confirmed as Amazon has just announced the Prime Early Access Sale. As seen here, the new 48-hour Prime Day-style sales event will take place on October 11 - 12 and will feature thousands of deals exclusively available for Amazon Prime members. Looks like Black Friday is starting early.
We've heard a lot of rumblings over the past few months about a potential re-run of Amazon Prime Day later this year. And now it looks like those rumors are at least partly true according to a new page on Amazon that references a Prime Early Access Sale set to take place in October.
First spotted by What Hi-Fi, the page in question lists a number of terms and conditions related to a smart plug deal that will be exclusively available during the Prime Early Access Sale. One of these conditions states that the purchase "must take place between October 11, 2022 at 12:00 AM PT and October 12, 2022 at 11:59 PM PT".
Based on that, we can reasonably assume that the Prime Early Access Sale will take place at Amazon US between October 11 - October 12.
This does tie in with the original rumors that first circulated in June. Back then, a leak revealed that Amazon was asking its retail partners to submit a selection of lightning deals for an event dubbed 'Prime Fall'. This strongly suggested that another Prime Day event was in the cards with a selection of exclusive limited-time savings for members.
Amazon has not made any public announcements yet about a second Prime Day or the Prime Early Access Sale. It's also unclear whether it will run a similar event in other regions at the same time. We've asked Amazon to comment and will share any more news as soon as we hear anything.
So, is this really Amazon Prime Day 2?
Honestly, we don't think this Prime Early Access Sale will be as significant as a full-on Amazon Prime Day. It may have all the hallmarks of another two-day deals bonanza that's available exclusively for Amazon Prime members, but our gut says this will be a more reserved affair.
There's still a good chance that thousands of products will be reduced over the 48-hour sale, including many sought-after items, top tech, Amazon devices, and more. Think of it more like the Amazon Epic Daily Deals event that was run last year and had a handful of good offers throughout the month.
Except, this time, it's more like a prelude to the retailer's Black Friday deals in November with a bunch of offers available ahead of time if you're an Amazon Prime member. Remember, you can sign up for a 30-day Amazon Prime free trial if you haven't before and this will cover you for the sale period.
When it does go live, we'll keep a close eye on the Prime Early Access Sale here at TechRadar to ensure you don't miss out on any bargains before the big end-of-year sales period is in full swing. You can follow our Amazon sale live blog for regular updates.
