Where to buy PS5: Restock updates and how to pre-order Sony’s elusive PlayStation 5 console
FOLLOW LIVE: PS5 stock UK – tracking live restock updates from all the major retailers
The PS5 has been out for over a year now and gamers are still struggling to get their hands on Sony’s newest console. Stock issues have plagued the PS5 ever since it launched in 2020, and the restock kerfuffle is still going on today.
The sad tale began in November 2020, when excited gamers tore open PS5 parcels that they had pre-ordered, only to find them replaced with cat food, a George Foreman grill and a bag of grain. Whenever more PS5s were made available, they were snapped up almost immediately, with scalpers leading the charge.
Unfortunately, the availability of the PS5 isn’t likely to improve until mid or even late 2022, thanks to the global shortage in semiconductors, partly caused by the increased demand for electronics over the last year and a half. In November, it was reported that Sony was revising down its production of consoles from 16 million to 15 million between April 2021 and March 2022.
On the PS5’s first birthday, Sony’s CEO Jim Ryan gave gamers a quick update on the stock situation in a short blog post. “We continue to see historic demand for PS5 and we understand the inventory constraints remain a source of frustration for many of our customers,” Ryan wrote. “Rest assured that we are laser-focused on doing everything in our power to ship as many units as possible, it’s something we work on every day across the company and remains my top priority. Again, we appreciate your patience as we navigate through these unprecedented global challenges.”
While things were looking up in the final two months of 2021, with the launch of PlayStation Direct in the UK in November and a record 54 restocks across the month in December, January was one of the worst months we’ve ever seen. We’re hoping that the restocks will start to pick up this February. Still on the hunt? We’re here to ensure you bag one this century.
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We’ve been predicting restocks for months now, and have seen patterns emerge among the major retailers. In the months ahead, Sony expects the situation to improve, and hopefully shelves will start filling up nicely. We’ll also be updating this page with our predictions regularly and whenever we hear exactly when retailers will be stocking up once again.
Each retailer has a different schedule for when they will drop the PS5 on their website, and below we’ve rounded up all the major ones, along with the best ways to get a console when they do end up arriving.
Amazon last had a restock of the disc edition console on 19 January and the digital edition console on 23 December. Both times, stock sold out in less than an hour. The retailer usually releases the PS5 disc edition before the PS5 digital edition, so be aware if you see one go live before the other. On 14 July, Amazon made the console exclusively available to Prime members for the first time, which may be good at combating scalper bots in the future. It has only made the console available to Prime customers ever since.
Our top tips are:
The last time AO had a PS5 restock was on 21 January, with stock selling out in minutes. In previous drops, customers have had to perform some coding gymnastics to secure the console. When the PS5 is live, sometimes customers have to do the below, just to get it into their basket:
It takes a bit of effort, but many people have seen success using it when the console is live but showing “out of stock”. Note: This will only work when the PS5 product page is live on AO, and you’ll need to be using Google Chrome.
You can test this out with any item on AO’s website if you want a bit of practice before the next drop. AO usually drops stock between 9am and 11am in the morning. It’s expected to only have bundles in stock this time round.
Argos is one of a handful of retailers that have started allowing people to walk into its stores and order a PS5 console right from one of its tablets. It usually has an in-store drop at the same time as its online drop. The last restock took place at 8am on 21 January. Be warned, however, that the difficulty level for Argos is high.
Drops used to occur in the dead of the night between 1am and 5am, and go live region by region, but the retailer has since begun dropping consoles at 8am. You might see one city go live before yours and all you can do is refresh the page. Argos’s website isn’t the most reliable, with many gamers finding more success through the Android app.
The last drop at Asda took place on 22 December at 9am and stock sold out within minutes. Drops usually take place between 8am and 9am. Asda isn’t the easiest retailer to secure a console from, but we do have a few tips.
Make sure to have all your payment details saved ahead of time and that you’ve added the console to your wish list. Sometimes you aren’t able to check out from the main PS5 landing page, but you are able to check out from your wish list.
Since October, only BT Broadband customers have been able to buy the console from the retailer. The PS5 was in stock at the retailer for over a week in January, from 10-20 January.
