PS5 restock Twitter tracker: Best Buy, Walmart and GameStop – when to buy it PS5 console and text that says restock date

PS5 restock update: Finding PS5 in stock isn’t as hard as it used to be in early 2021, especially if you follow our PS5 restock Twitter tracker Matt Swider – and turn on notifications for alerts for the next PS5 restock. He tracks Best Buy, Walmart and a dozen other stores in the US to alert you of when the Sony console is in stock, and has helped 73,000 people get a next-gen console in the past six months. To be transparent, today, August 15, is likely to feature no restock, since Sunday is rare for PlayStation 5 inventory. But there’s a potential GameStop restock date this week, according to our exclusive sources familiar with their planning and Amazon and Target are overdue for PS5 Disc and PS5 Digital consoles. 

Here’s how to get those PS5 restock alerts:

Instructions: Click on this screenshot of a PS5 restock alert from Twitter tracker Matt Swider and turn on notifications (that little bell icon in the profile) for instant alerts. This is what you’ll see when there’s the PS5 is in stock.

PS5 restock news for Sunday, August 15

The PS5 restock news came to a crescendo on Thursday of last week, with no restock dates on any other day leading up to that. This meant eager customers were looking to buy their console on eBay, StockX and other resellers for about $800 or more.

But it’s getting easier to buy the PS5 in the US, according to our restock experts, and by simply waiting until Thursday, we came through with alerts for four different PS5 restock events. Demand has fallen slightly, even if Sony’s supply of PS5 consoles remains low. Note: we do expect demand to pick up dramatically from October until Christmas.

When PSS5 was in stock: Sam’s Club began the PlayStation 5 restock rally at 12:30am on Thursday and Antonline had PS5 restock bundles when everyone first woke up. This was followed by a surprise Walmart PS5 restock announcement happening at noon and 9pm EDT that same day. In between, Best Buy had the console after three weeks of silence.

Walmart and Best Buy had the $499 PS5 Disc and $399 PS5 Digital for MSRP, while Sam’s Club and Antonline sold bundles at face value. The only stores in the US we didn’t hear from were GameStop and Target, and that’s good news.

When is the next PS5 restock? There’s a PS5 GameStop restock expected this week, according to our sources. It’s too early to tell which day and we’re not ready to confirm the restock details (they’re not completely locked down by multiple sources), but it’s big news. Target has done a PS5 restock every three weeks recently at about 7:40am EDT, and the end of this week would be the restock date and time we’re waiting for unless Target changes its PS5 Disc restock strategy.

PS5 restock Twitter tracker for Best Buy

• Next PS5 restock date at Best Buy: We just saw it in stock
• Last PS5 restock date at Best Buy: Thursday, August 12, 2021 at 2:35pm EDT
• Buying/Shipping method: Online-only, pick-up in stores 3-5 days later
• How to buy PS5 from Best Buy: Follow PS5 restock tracker Matt Swider

The Best Buy PS5 restock date is unpredictable at this point, with the exact date harder to nail down than the time. Best buy does prefer to drop during the later portion of the week, and has often picked a Thursday or Friday. It takes three to five days to ship the PS5 consoles from regional warehouses (where every Best Buy PS5 is at when you order them) to your local store (where you pick it up in person), and that means it usually lands in the stores early the next week.

The restock time has always been working hours: 9:35am EDT to 5:05pm EDT. It’s a wide range, yes, but Best Buy usually does this to thwart resellers and bots (read: it doesn’t work). Best Buy is one of the hardest stores in the US to buy PS5 from.

PS5 restock Twitter tracker for Walmart

• Next PS5 restock date at Walmart: None scheduled since it just happened
• Last PS5 restock date at Walmaet: August 12, 2021 at 12pm EDT + 9pm EDT
• Buying/Shipping method: Online-only, ships from one week to two months
• How to buy PS5 from Walmart: Follow PS5 restock tracker Matt Swider

A massive Walmart PS5 restock just happened on Thursday, August 12, and we saw another fairly big restock the week before. In other words, Walmart is likely tapped out for this new week – or more. 

Although Walmart has surprised us in the past with random PS5 stock – it’s always a Thursday at 3pm but it’s not every Thursday – PlayStation 5 console shipments are estimated to stretch to October 7 (some people may get their PS5 delivered earlier), that means we’re headed into Black Friday territory soon. Will Walmart run out of Sony consoles for 2021 before the end of next month? This is why Walmart may slow down restocks for the next several weeks, and GameStop is a better choice.

PS5 restock Twitter tracker for GameStop

• Next PS5 restock date at GameStop: Could be this week (every 7-15 days)
• Last PS5 restock date at GameStop: August 3, 2021 at 11:00am EDT
• Buying/Shipping method: Online-only, ships in 3-5 days
• How to buy PS5 from GameStop: Follow PS5 restock tracker Matt Swider

We keep telling people who follow our PS5 restock Twitter tracker that GameStop is the easiest store to buy the Sony console from simply because that sell bundles and charge $15 a membership fee for first access (read: only access because they sell out before everyone else has a chance). This creates a small barrier to block resellers.

It works, and recently, our GameStop PS5 restock exclusive news has been on-point for the past three weeks: we often know exactly what date GameStop will have a restock of next-gen consoles. It’s always been between 7 and 15 days, according to our tracking efforts, and that means we’ll see consoles by next Wednesday, August 18. Just be sure to pay the $15 annual fee to be a PowerUp Rewards Pro member by then.

PS5 restock Twitter tracker at Target

• Next PS5 restock date at Target: Likely the end of next week
• Last PS5 restock date at Target : July 30, 2021 at 7:38am EDT
• Buying/Shipping method: Online-only, same-day pickup in stores
• How to buy PS5 from Target: Follow PS5 restock tracker Matt Swider

Update: Our PS5 restock Twitter tracker did pick up on a small batch of PS5 stock sold locally at a few individual stores this week. But we detected that these consoles were too few to be a real drop – and many who ordered had theirs canceled. Why? Because it been a week-and-a-half since the last PS5 restock at the store; anyone who didn’t pick up their console by now had it rerouted into inventory for someone else. From our tracking, it was only at a few stores with even fewer consoles.

We used to have exclusive news on our Twitter tracker feed regarding Target PS5 restock dates. Now Target likes to surprise everyone without passing around internal memos that get leaked. But we still have sources at individual Target stores telling us when they receive inventory, and they typically have enough Sony PS5 consoles ‘consistent with a restock’ every three weeks.

Target has recently switched to launching restocks on Fridays, having previously only used Wednesday or Thursday restock dates for much of 2021. The restock dates are unpredictable now, but the actual time is consistent: it’s always been 7am EDT and 8am EDT, with the most popular time being within a few minutes of 7:40am EDT (the last PS5 restock time was 7:38am EDT, for example).

There’s a lot to like about buying from Target, as Matt Swider’s PS5 restock Twitter tracker posts become filled with replies of people showing off their console-in-hand photos, as Target allows for same-day pickup of online orders. Like all retailers, if you go to the store, employees will refuse to sell you one in person.

PS5 restock Twitter tracker for Amazon

• Next PS5 restock date at Amazon: Coming up in August
• Last PS5 restock date at Amazon : July 21, 2021 at 10:10am EDT
• Buying/Shipping method: Online-only, ships in 1-3 days
• How to buy PS5 from Amazon: Follow PS5 restock tracker Matt Swider

Our PS5 restock Twitter tracker Matt Swider is ready for the next Amazon restock, as the No. 1 online retailer is due to launch console orders for August – it usually has a PlayStation 5 restock once a month and we haven’t seen PS5 in stock since late July.

Amazon is so popular that whenever it has a PS5 restock, its checkout pages usually crash with many people seeing 404 errors (with cute photos of dogs). The trick to buying the PS5 from Amazon is to select ‘Add to list’ whenever the normal add-to-cart button doesn’t work. From there, a pop-up window comes up and you can select ‘View list’ and add it to your cart from there, away from the main product page that’s being hammered by traffic.

Amazon usually picks one of two times for a restock: either in the morning (between 10am and 11am EDT) or in the middle of the night (just after 3am EDT). There was one special circumstance in which Amazon chose 12am EDT for its nighttime PS5 restock to tie into the last three hours of Amazon Prime Day.

Two important things: Going from the back-and-forth PS5 restock date and time patterns, we may be in for a late-night restock of the PS5 in August, but our Twitter tracker will be ready for it. Also, for every other restock, Amazon has PS5 Disc and Digital, and then just Digital the next time. This next cycle should have both versions of the console.

Other PS5 retailers being tracked on Twitter

We’re still tracking PS5 restock news from Walmart and Best Buy, but because both just had plenty of PS5 consoles on hand this week, we don’t expect too much news out of either American retailer.   

We’re constantly tracking over a dozen retailers in the US on Twitter when it comes to PS5 stock, so this is far from the full list. We’re also monitoring restock dates at Newegg, Costco, Antonline, and Sam’s Club. Sony PlayStation Direct, the official store for the PlayStation 5 brand, is also due for a restock, but has slowed down offering inventory tremendously.

Online stores like Silicon Nerd haven’t delivered consoles to any of our followers, so you shouldn’t buy there until further notice (and maybe try to get your money back). We’ll continue to update this list so you have the best chance to get a PS5 console before that looming October deadline to buy PS5.