PS5 restock coming this week — what you need to know

PS5 restock
(Image credit: Tom's Guide)

A major PS5 restock is slated to hit the U.S., U.K. and Ireland this week, with Sony tipped to shift 14 million units of its new games console this year. 

At least that’s according to PS5 Stock Central on Twitter, a regular tipster for PS5 restock updates. As predicted, there were some prominent PS5 restock events earlier in the week at GameStop and Best Buy. (Both retailers have since sold out). It's unclear if more PS5 stock could arrive today, but it never hurts to be ready.

Finding where to buy the PS5 has been a major challenge for PlayStation fans, as stock across the globe sold out extremely quickly after the PS5 launched on November 12. Subsequent PS5 restocks in the run-up to 2020’s holiday season allowed eagle-eyed buyers to snap up the consoles, but stock levels were generally constrained, so the PS5 rapidly went out of stock again. 

The situation hasn’t been helped by scalpers using bots to spot new PS5 stock the moment it comes in. The bots end up buying as many consoles as possible to then sell for hugely inflated prices. Some retailers have taken action to prevent this by limiting PS5 orders to one per person, though that hasn’t stopped scalpers from trying to grab as many PS5 units as possible. 

Since it's been nearly two months since the release of the PS5, we’re hoping that Sony has started to manufacture more consoles at a faster rate. Given the ambition to shift millions of PS5 consoles across the year, we’d hazard a guess that Sony has ramped up its manufacturing, though there’s been no official word on this. 

Microsoft is in the same position as Sony, with the Xbox Series X out of stock at pretty much every retailer we check - take a look at out where to buy Xbox Series X article for more information. But Microsoft has appealed to AMD to help it in getting more Xbox Series X consoles to the market. 

As such, it would tentatively appear that both Sony and Microsoft are gearing up to have more of their new games consoles available this year. 2021 is set to be a big year for next-generation gaming, what with the likes of Gran Turismo 7, Horizon Forbidden West, Halo Infinite and Fable 4 on the horizon. 

Roland Moore-Colyer

Roland Moore-Colyer a Managing Editor at Tom’s Guide with a focus on news, features and opinion articles. He often writes about gaming, phones, laptops and other bits of hardware; he’s also got an interest in cars. When not at his desk Roland can be found wandering around London, often with a look of curiosity on his face. 

  • Texas Tom
    It is irritating enough that scalpers keep consumers from being able to buy from legitimate sellers to then markup 2x and 3x on resell sites, but distributers like Amazon should be censored or even boycotted for their inability or unwillingness to stop supporting scalpers on Amazon.
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