PS5 restock: Best Buy, Walmart missed their drop times – when to look next Walmart PS5 restock date

Update: The PS5 restock at Best Buy and Walmart didn’t happen this week, and that may be par for the course when it comes to inventory in April, we’re told. We’re now outside of the usual Best Buy restock time of 12pm to 3:15pm EDT, a rare miss when the electronics retailer has gone six Fridays in a row with new orders.

PS5 and Xbox restock looks “dire for April”, according to retailers TechRadar spoke to on the condition of anonymity (as they rely on Sony and Microsoft shipments to their stores).

To get advance notice, follow Matt Swider as he tracks the PS5 console:

This is what the notification for the Best Buy PS5 restock looks like (last week is the example given) to offer you a sense of what you should see on Fridays, although we’re well beyond the 12pm EDT to 3:15pm EDT window we usually see new console inventory launch. Best Buy only had the Nvidia 3080 in stock today among other GPU and CPU products – very briefly.

The Best Buy restock time always seems to be in the afternoon and, and it has  sold the PlayStation 5 on Friday for the past six weeks. Orders have opened up between 12pm EDT and 3:15pm EDT. Last week, our PS5 restock Twitter tracker detected the PS5 Disc console on sale for $499 at 12:30pm EDT. In fact, we were able to run an exclusive report ahead of the official time thanks to sources at Best Buy warehouses regarding inventory.

This week – this week was different at both Best Buy and Walmart.

Best Buy PS5 restock date and time moved

The Best Buy PS5 restock date would have been today, Friday, April 2 if the retailer had stuck to its pattern of launching next-gen console orders on Friday afternoons. So far, we haven’t seen orders open up for any next-gen console.

Why? Best Buy stockpiles PS5 Disc and Digital Edition consoles at warehouses during the week, opens online orders up on Friday and ships packages to its stores for pick-up in 3-5 business days. Basically, you pick up the PS5 later the next week.

However, it does nationwide orders, so if some regional warehouses don’t have a few thousand consoles on hand, it might hold back until the next Friday (or another day, but it hasn’t done that recently). 

We’ve had exclusive reporting pieced together from inventory counts via warehouse and store employee sources to confirm the Best Buy restock date and time right before it officially went live. That didn’t happen at every warehouse this week – but the ones that did have PS5 restock noted that they primarily had the Disc version.

Best Buy restock date: other signs to look for

Besides the pattern and the fact that some warehouses had inventory, we saw a tell from you, the reader. Many people following our PS5 restock Twitter tracker had commented that the PS5 console they tried to buy last week but left in their cart was suddenly removed on Thursday afternoon. Best Buy purging consoles from carts is usually a sign that it’s preparing another big PS5 restock soon.

Alas, we’re not seeing a Best Buy PS5 restock for today. That would have been good news for the tens of thousands of people who were let down by the fact that there was no Walmart or GameStop restock this week. Demand for the console is actually down from its peak three weeks ago, but inventory remains a problem that Sony hasn’t been able to address to this day.

TechRadar also got word from several retail sources who suggest that April is looking dire for both Sony and Microsoft console inventory. So even as demand wanes (as early adopters get their console), there still doesn’t seem to be enough consoles being made and shipping to retailers. 

In other words, if you see the PS5 back in stock, get it while you can.

Best Buy PS5 restock date and time

As we’ve said, Best Best all of a sudden doesn’t look like it’ll restock any new console today. Initially we were confident based on the pattern (this would have been the seventh restock in a row for a Friday restock), the inventory on hand at some warehouses, and the purging of consoles from everyone’s shopping cart. 

However, Best Buy may be stockpiling for next Friday, April 9 (it likes Fridays so that consoles can start to be delivered to stores throughout the next week, we’ve been told). What time will Best Buy restock on April 9, if that’s the date?  It’s best to look at 12:00pm EDT across the US (so 11:30am CDT / 10:30am PDT / 9:30am PDT).

GameStop PS5 restock date and time

The was just a GameStop PS5 restock date this morning, so we expect that the game retailer will have its next restock late next week or the week after. It usually opens up orders for bundles one to one-and-a-half weeks after the last restock So we’ll be keeping an eye out for that late next week.

Amazon PS5 restock date

The overdue Amazon PS5 restock has become the white whale of eager gamers looking to buy the PlayStation 5. We were sent information that the retailer had a PS5 restock date for Thursday, March 18 with 46,000 consoles up for grabs. But that scheduled date got shifted, clearly – and we’re not sure why. Maybe it’ll offload those 46,000 console in inventory this week. But really, who knows?

Update: We’re told that the Xbox may drop sooner than the PS5, even though Amazon just had a small round of Microsoft consoles for sale early last week.

Antonline PS5 restock

Antonline usually has next-gen console restock every week – Antonline has publicly stated that it has “drops every week” – so because it launched a PS5 bundle March 30, we don’t anticipate another restock from this retailer until next week. However, we’ll keep watching in the off-chance there’s a PS5 Digital Edition for sale.

We caution getting there on time: Antonline tends to sell out in three minutes, but when it goes on sale, there are no waves or in stock/out of stock funny business with the add to cart button.

Here’s what our Antonline restock alert looked like yesterday:

Sony Direct date and time

The Sony Direct PS5 restock date hasn’t been this week, but it often does PlayStation 5 drops multiple times a week during weekday afternoons. This is Sony’s official store for the PlayStation brand and one of the more fair ways to buy the console: it uses a lottery system to keep bots at bay. You need a PSN account and it’s one PS5 console per address. Its virtual queue is randomized, so we’re always “in line” attempting to reach checkout. 

Our success rate on getting through? About once every other week when there are 3-4 drops per week. Note: we never buy the PS5 in the end, giving up our spot to the next person and just testing it out for reporting purposes to see if it gets any easier or learn new tricks. One trick we’ve learned: while having new tabs open won’t help your chances, using different browsers and different devices is the best way to get the console from Sony Direct.

Here’s what our Sony Direct PS5 restock alert looked like last time (March 22 example shown):

TechRadar will continue to report on PS5 restock information as the news breaks. We’ll keep this page updated with the most relevant data regarding Sony’s console and when it’s back in stock. Time is always a factor, so knowing when PS5 will be in stock at Best Buy and other retailers give you a better chance to buy it in April, rather than having to wait until the summer of 2021 – or even later this year.