Target PS5 restock: retailer surprises with PS5 in stock – when to buy it next PS5 restock

Update: The PS5 restock at Best Buy, GameStop and Walmart may be next, and we’ve created a fresh news story to keep you up to date.

Prior news story: The Target PS5 restock on Friday was a surprise, but a lot of followers of our 24/7 PS5 restock Twitter tracker Matt Swider were able to get the $499 PS5 Disc and $399 PS5 Digital Edition console. The Target restock time was 7:07am EDT – 33 minutes earlier than normal. And it was the first Friday morning restock from Target (it’s always been Wednesday or Thursday in 2021). There were only dozen consoles on hand at retail locations in the United States, according to our sources. Our PS5 restock tracker is always monitoring Best Buy, GameStop and Walmart, among the dozen American stores tracked daily

Miss it? Matt Swider will send you a PS5 restock Twitter alert – if you follow his account and turn on notifications.

► When is the PS5 restock? Follow our PS5 restock Twitter tracker Matt Swider and turn on notifications for live restock news. It’s the fastest way to get PS5 restock updates.

► Don’t buy from Twitter users – which are all scams. Only buy from the US stores Matt alerts you about. No legitimate person will sell a PS5 for just $550.

Click on this example of the last major restock date to follow Matt Swider on Twitter and turn on notifications (the little bell icon).

PS5 restock news: Target PS5 restock surprise

As we’ve said, today was the first Target PS5 restock date on a Friday in 2021. In fact, it was the first day of the week to be anything other than a Wednesday or Thursday – it was a surprise. So much so that we expected Target to wait for more shipments next week (when there would be more console inventory to go around nationwide).

We did confirm through our sources that Target was slowly but steadily getting PS5 console inventory in its stores (held in the backroom to be sold online later on for in-store pickup). There were, on average, 12 PS5 consoles per store, according to our sources across the United States – not just one Target location.

This Target PS5 restock today is now the only major retailer to have the Sony console in stock all week. We did see a small amount of PS5 Disc consoles launch from Antonline this week, while the Newegg Shuffle had both a PS5 Digital Edition and PS5 Disc bundle in days prior.

Why did Target restock PS5 on a Friday?

While Target doesn’t publicly detail its PS5 restock plans, we know that this is a day later than the usual Thursday orders that go live every few weeks (it’s been three weeks since the last Target PS5 restock). Friday is against the norm. 

Why restock PS5 yesterday? It may be because of the short week given the fact that Monday was technically a holiday. We’ve seen this before in which retailers don’t launch stock or delay and use weeks with a holiday as a replenishment week.

PS5 restock tracker: step-by-step guide

• 1. Get alerts: Follow PS5 restock tracker Matt Swider with notifications turned on. Otherwise, you’re going to miss the PS5 restock. 
• 2. Live coaching: Matt has been doing PS5 restock live streams on YouTube to help illustrate – in real-time – how to buy the console.
• 3. Remember not to buy from Twitter resellers which are filled with scams, no matter how tempting they are.

PS5 restock at Best Buy, GameStop and Walmart?

Besides the Target PS5 drop, we’re tracking PlayStation 5 at other retailers. However, there are no massive restock events expected today or this weekend, according to PS5 restock tracker Matt Swider. We may see RTX 3080 GPU stock before the day is out (or it may fall to next week), but both Best Buy and GameStop just had a restock last week, so we’re trying to get a read on their inventory levels for this week (which suggests that both stores could have the PS5 console in stock next week instead). 

The standout retailer is Walmart, which hasn’t had the $399 PS5 Digital in two weeks and $499 PS5 Disc console in one month. The Walmart PS5 restock date is more likely to be Thursday of next week.

Last week was light: the only stores in the US to have an official PS5 restock were Best Buy (on Tuesday) and GameStop (on Thursday). Furthermore, Best Buy was a bunch of leftovers from the Thursday prior. That’s a good thing, believe it or not, as retailers are amassing inventory.

Other PS5 stores we’re tracking include Sony Direct – the Sony Direct virtual queue was limited last time around – as well as Sam’s Club and Costco.

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Did that help? Be sure to like and subscribe to these PS5 restock Q&A videos that happen on a weekly basis. We take your questions and answer them live.

Best Buy PS5 restock date – when it the next stock?

Best Buy restock date is likely to be next week, with Thursday and Friday being the most popular days of the week of the retailer. But we’ve also seen Best Buy restock on a Monday and Tuesday rarely. The electronics retailer is known to skip weeks when it’s low on inventory, and that seems to be what has happened this week at Best Buy. We’ll keep this updated when we have news.

You’ll probably see a Best Buy GPU in-stock alert from Matt Swider right before the console orders go live – that’s how it worked during one of the last PS5 restock dates at Best Buy. 

PS5 consoles also tend to stick to an every-other-week pattern although the Best Buy restock time has been all over the place and is harder to predict today. It’s been anywhere from 9:38am to 6:05pm, so our tracking efforts span the entire day at Best Buy. It makes being a PS5 restock tracker that much harder.