The last couple of years have been tough for the semi-traditional Black Friday deal hunt. With the pandemic putting a damper on the yearly in-store shopping rush, and supply chain problems making it hard to find computers, consoles, GPUs, and all sorts of other things, just buying some gear (let alone at a discount) has been a challenge. But things are clearing up a bit. While you still can’t find a PS5 or an RTX graphics card on store shelves for love nor money, shoppers should be able to grab a few early Black Friday gaming deals on PC and console accessories.
When is Black Friday 2021?
Black Friday is always the last Friday in the week of November—November 26 for 2021. It’s the first shopping day after the American Thanksgiving holiday, thought to be the day that retailers (especially large department stores) turned a profit for the year. Thus, in accounting terms, they went “in the black.”
Proximity to Christmas has always made it a popular time to shop for gifts, but in the last few decades it’s become an absolute smorgasbord of consumerism, with shoppers hunting for the year’s best deals both in stores and online. Black Friday is now more of a season than a single day, with deals extending into early November.
How will supply chain problems affect Black Friday gaming deals?
A combination of semiconductor shortages, a cryptocurrency market boom, and annoying scalpers have driven up demand for both recent game consoles and graphics cards. That means that if you’re hunting for a deal on the PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, new OLED Switch, or any kind of Nvidia or AMD graphics card, you’ll be disappointed. Frankly you’ll be incredibly lucky just to find these items in stock at their retail prices.
Nvidia
Other gaming items, especially individually sold games themselves, will be less affected. You should still be able to find deals on most computer components (with the possible exception of the newest and most powerful CPUs), and gaming accessories like keyboards, mice, monitors, speakers, and controllers. Stock may be more limited—and prices somewhat higher—than experienced shoppers are used to.
Which retailers have early Black Friday sales?
Most of the major retailer suspects are already offering deals on gaming gear, and the major PC manufacturers are offering some of the same discounts they generally do. Some of these are labeled as “early Black Friday deals,” some aren’t, but there are discounts to be found either way.
- Best Buy — while America’s last surviving big box electronics retailer doesn’t have a dedicated pre-BF hub, it’s still offering regular deals on console games and accessories as well as gaming PCs, laptop, and accessories.
- Amazon — Amazon’s pre-Black Friday hub is a grab bag of random discounts, but it’s heavily peppered with electronics of all kinds.
- Newegg — Newegg’s Black Friday deals begin on November 22nd.
- Walmart — Walmart is offering pre-BF deal hubs for both electronics in general and video games.
- B&H Photo — B&H’s generic “holiday shopping deals” hub has dedicated tabs for both computer equipment and “TVs & Entertainment,” as well as a handy price-range selection tool.
- Dell — Dell offers at least some discounts on most of its product categories.
- Lenovo — Lenovo’s Black Friday deals aren’t live until, well, Black Friday, but you can preview them ahead of time.
- HP — HP offers weekly deals on most of its categories, but the big discounts won’t be live until Black Friday.
- Razer — Razer is offering a nice selection of discounts on some high-dollar items, as well as decent discounts on bundled accessories.
Early Black Friday gaming deals
Dell Alienware Aurora R10 Gaming Desktop
Dell
From: Dell.com
Was: $1710
Now: $1350 ($360 off)
It’s hard as hell to find a gaming desktop with a new RTX card at a decent price, but Dell’s selling this one with a screaming Ryzen 7 processor and 16GB of RAM.
See the Alienware Aurora R10 at Dell.com
Samsung 970 EVO Plus M.2 SSD 1TB
Samsung
From: B&H Photo
Was: $170
Now: $140 ($30 off)
It’s not a great time to look for most PC upgrades, but you can at least get some hyper-fast SSD storage at a nice discount.
See the Samsung 970 EVO Plus M.2 SSD at B&H
MSI GF65 15.6-inch Gaming Laptop
MSI
From: Best Buy
Was: $1100
Now: $850 ($250 off)
This mid-range gaming laptop, with a surprisingly competent RTX 3060 card and a 144Hz screen, is down to budget levels.
Xbox Elite Series 2 Wireless Controller
Microsoft
From: Target
Was: $180
Now: $140 ($40 off)
Microsoft’s ultra-premium, ultra-custom controller is the most decadent way to play action games on your PC. Pair it over Bluetooth or with a dedicated dongle.
See the Xbox Elite Series 2 controller at Target
Dell 24″ Curved Gaming Monitor
Dell
From: Best Buy
Was: $250
Now: $180 (32% off)
While it isn’t the biggest or most advanced gaming monitor out there, this competent 1080p model looks great and will let you see buttery-smooth 165Hz animation in PC games.
Michael is a former graphic designer who’s been building and tweaking desktop computers for longer than he cares to admit. His interests include folk music, football, science fiction, and salsa verde, in no particular order.
