PS5 restock Twitter tracker for Target, Best Buy, GameStop and Walmart updates PS5 restock

Update: The Best Buy PS5 restock was this afternoon and Target this morning, and if you didn’t get either, you need to follow our PS5 restock Twitter tracker Matt Swider. Follow and turn on notifications for alerts, as Matt tweets when the PS5 is in stock in US, including stores like Target, Best Buy, GameStop and Walmart. While other sites reported the PS5 restock at Target was ‘likely’ yesterday at a very odd time, we put our accurate news here at TechRadar to gain your trust. Matt Swider has helped. We’re faithfully tracking the next PS5 restock and offering real-time alerts, though weekend restocks are rare.

Matt has helped over 88,000 people get a next-gen console so far with these alerts:

PS5 restock news today, Friday, October 1

We saw both Best Buy and Target PS5 restock today. Target happened after three weeks of the US retailer not having the Sony console in stock. The $499 PS5 Disc console was for sale at 7:49am EDT, according to Matt Swider’s tweet, while the $399 PS5 Digital Edition went on sale at 8:11am EDT in much smaller quantities (we know this since it sold out quickly and didn’t show up in some regions of the United States).

Best Buy restocked both the PS5 Disc and PS5 Digital in a surprise restock at 1:14pm EDT. Our PS5 restock Twitter alert from Matt Swider is embedded below as proof:

PS5 restock news has ramped up in recent weeks with a lot of people finally securing the PlayStation console either online or in stores, more than a year after pre-orders first went live.

Best Buy PS5 restock: pivot between online and in-store

We did say Best Buy will pivot between online and in-store restocks, and today was proof of our reporting. The Best Buy PS5 restock happened online at 1:14pm EDT, with both PS5 Disc and PS5 Digital Editions in stock.

This was the first time Best Buy used its new verify system for a PS5 restock (it first used the enhanced checkout system earlier this for the Xbox Series X). One week prior, Best Buy had an in-store restock on September 23, 2021 (the first of any major retailer in 2021), after it failed to have the console online for more than a month. It was odd because Best Buy stocked the PlayStation 5 almost weekly before that, so clearly it was changing up its strategy.

What we got right: This doesn’t mean the retailer will continue to have in-store restocks of the PS5 from here on out. It may do what it does with the GPU restocks: alternating between online restocks through its website and in-store restocks on select Thursday mornings. In fact, we saw an Xbox Series X restock on Monday, September 27, so there’s some precedent for online console restock dates to continue.

Best Buy restock time online: The date is harder to nail down outside of the fact that it’s never in stock during the weekends or evenings. But the official restock time always falls between 9:37am EDT and 5:05am EDT, so destined for working hours in the US Eastern time zone. It’s a big window, sure, but one we can easily track on Twitter.

In-store PS5 restocks become more popular

The big news is that the PS5 is starting to show up in stores. No, not on shelves, but sold in stores like GameStop and Best Buy with lines wrapped around the block. 

The Best Buy RTX 3080 GPU restock events set the stage for the retailer to do the same for PS5. There have only been two in-store PS5 restocks at major American retailers, so don’t expect too many of those. We had exclusive news stories about both the Best Buy in-store PS5 restock and the GameStop PS5 restock in-store event, so we’ll send out alerts ahead of time so you can line up. But online PS5 restocks are more frequent.

We had on-the-ground reporting of both restock events – pretty much the only tech website doing so – and many of the people follow Matt’s PS5 restock Twitter account.

Online PS5 restocks remain more frequent

PS5 restocks in person are still extremely rare, as we continue to see retailers sell the console online. Namely, Walmart, Target and Sam’s Club do popular restocks that sell out in minutes.

Thursday is usually the most active day. Walmart usually restocks on a Thursday, though not every Thursday and it’s back-ordered right now, while Antonline, a little-known retailer with good customer service and fast shipping, has guaranteed weekly restocks of next-gen consoles (so it could be an Xbox Series X restock on some weeks).

Target prefers Friday restocks, and today proved just that – the fifth Target PS5 restock on a Friday in a row. Target always restocks the PS5 restock in the morning, pretty much between 7am EDT and 8am EDT. In fact, there’s been PS5 stock only at that time (except once) in 2021.

There hasn’t been much news at club retailers in the United States. Costo hasn’t had been good source of PS5 stock in several months and may be holding back until Christmas 2021, which makes sense. Sam’s Club did a restock overnight this week, but PS5 availability there has been limited. 

We can confirm that some retailers are purposely holding back consoles until closer to the holidays: think early November to meet ongoing demand and tie into early Black Friday deals. So you should find a console soon enough – if you keep up with the PS5 restock news and alerts.

Learn from our GameStop PS5 restock live stream

PS5 restock tutorials on YouTube are the best way to figure out how to checkout at each store in the US, and they’re all different. We went through the step-by-step instructions on how to buy a PS5 at GameStop with a YouTube live stream.

You can actually see Matt ‘cart’ (almost checkout with) a PS5 Digital console bundle (he didn’t because he doesn’t need another PS5 console).

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Target PS5 restock today

The Target PS5 restock date was today, October 1 and we knew that the retailer had just enough consoles to do a small restock thanks to Target employees around the country sending us photos. It was enough for a small PS5 drop, with about 20 PS5 Disc consoles per store.

Target PS5 restock time: While the retailer has shifted its PlayStation 5 restock day in the past, the Target PS5 restock time is consistent: in 2021, it’s always been 7am EDT to 8am EDT, with one exception: two restocks ago happened a little outside that window at 8:14am EDT. The latest restock for Friday, October 1 was 7:49am EDT.

Target PS5 restock advice: Don’t pass up PS5 Disc, which is almost always in-stock first for PS5 Digital, which often goes in stock second. PS5 Digital stock is extremely low every single time – and sometimes PS5 Digital doesn’t come in stock at all.

GameStop PS5 restock dates

• First in-store GameStop PS5 restock date for 2021: Thursday, September 30 at opening
• Last online GameStop PS5 restock date: Tuesday, September 28 at 11am EDT
• How to buy PS5 from GameStop: Follow PS5 restock tracker Matt Swider

The last GameStop PS5 restock happens in stores yesterday, Thursday, September 30, giving people a chance to buy PS5 consoles bundled with a game and waiting in line on Thursday morning (or even earlier). They had a chance to buy the console after spending $705 (everything is at MSRP for the extras included).

However, this past Tuesday demonstrated that GameStop isn’t giving up on online restocks. It sold four PS5 bundles through its website: two PS5 Disc bundles and two PS5 Digital bundles. Again, these included extras and you needed to be a PowerUp Pro Rewards member ($15 a year), but that cuts down on resellers scooping up the PS5 for MSRP and profiting off of the very console you’re trying to buy.

Sony Direct PS5 restocks happening more often

Sony PlayStation Direct is changing things up, with a PS5 restock dates happening more often, both with email invites to select (randomly picked PSN users) and wider virtual queues where anyone with a PSN account has a chance to buy the PS5.

It’s still difficult to get beyond ‘more than an hour wait’ time, but as more and more people get their Sony PS5 console of choice (they’re both on sale for MSRP through Sony Direct, thankfully), it’ll get easier.

We’ll continue to send out PS5 restock alerts from Sony Direct since they’ve been among the most successful. This Sony company must know someone who makes PS5.

Antonline PS5 restock – one next-gen bundle a week

Antonline has been consistent with its PS5 restocks, promising – and mostly fulfilling – a next-gen console restock once per week. We say mostly because sometimes it has the Xbox Series S in there, which isn’t as difficult to find in stock compared to the PS5. Anyway, because Antonline had a PS5 Digital bundle last week, there’s no guarantee it’ll pick a Sony console this time, but it’s a next-gen console to be sure.

Keep in mind: Antonline PS5 bundles will look pricey at first, but they’re at face value for all of the games and accessories included. While consoles still sell out in about three minutes (or less), the bundles slow down resellers, who can’t easily profit off of the extras. So it’s a benefit to real gamers who want to play the bundled games.

Walmart PS5 restock dates on Thursdays

Will the PS5 restock at Walmart next week? We’re always checking with our sources (we usually know a little bit in advance), but we know two things: it favors Thursdays (every Walmart PS5 restock has been on a Thursday except for one in 2021), and we know for a fact that its severely back-ordered PlayStation 5 shipments are making their way to US consumers sooner than the slated November dates (yes, not everyone has seen their ‘order processing’ status hasten, but a lot of people have). 

Walmart takes a long time to ship, and if it continues to offer the console with dates in November like it did in September (a two-month gap), by the time November rolls around, it’s going to have to be promising consoles in 2022, and no one wants to see that on Black Friday. It needed to slow down the pace a bit. That’s why we giving Walmart a 50/50 shot every Thursday, and we know it’s usually at specific times: 12pm EDT, 3pm EDT or 9pm EDT.

Amazon PS5 restock date

The Amazon PS5 restock dates has become easier to predict not because of sources in this case – Amazon seems to have shut down leaks – but because the online retail giant has been stocking new PS5 consoles around the 21st of every month, give or take a few days.

Specifically, we saw PS5 in stock at Amazon on September 21, August 25, July 21, June 23, May 26 and April 21 this year. That’s a pretty consistent restock track record, thought here are instances in which PS5 Digital didn’t show up alongside PS5 Disc (there’s always less PS5 Digital inventory at stores) or got shoehorned in on a different date (like September 2) without PS5 Disc accompanying it.

The Amazon PS5 restock time was fluctuating between late mornings (10:10am EDT to 11:05am EDT with the one-off Amazon Treasure Truck drop happening at 12pm EDT) and late nights (12:03am EDT to 3:18am EDT). But we haven’t seen a middle of the night PS5 drop since Amazon Prime Day, so neither we’re overdue for one in October or Amazon is sticking to those late morning restocks.

It hasn’t gotten any easier to buy the PS5 on Amazon when a restock happens. This is despite the fact that their latest restock date, September 21 at 11:03am EDT, did give Amazon Prime members priority access to buying the Sony console. We’ll see if it gets any easier on or around October 21, 2021.