“We sold out in 4 minutes” – The mad rush to buy a PlayStation 5 in South Africa
Two prominent gaming retailers in South Africa told MyBroadband that PlayStation 5 pre-orders sold out within minutes of going live last week.
Sony’s next-generation consoles are available in two models, which are priced as follows:
- Digital Edition PS5 – R9,999
- Standard PS5 – R11,999
BT Games, Koodoo, and Raru were the first retailers to open pre-orders on Thursday morning. By the afternoon of the same day, none of these retailers had any stock remaining.
Ecommerce giant Takealot was next to go live with pre-orders on Friday morning at 09:00.
Around 20 minutes later, the Digital Edition was no longer available, and soon afterwards, the Standard console was also out of stock.
Massmart’s Makro and Game stores also opened their pre-orders on Thursday and Friday afternoon, respectively. As of Monday morning, neither of these stores had any stock remaining.
MyBroadband asked retailers how many PS5 units were allocated to them, how quickly these sold out, and if they would be receiving additional stock in the near future.
We also asked the retailers about their plans for Microsoft’s next-generation consoles – the Xbox Series X and S – which will go on sale on Tuesday 22 September.
Raru
Raru told MyBroadband it had about a 20-minute warning before going live with PlayStation pre-orders. Once orders were opened, the console sold out in a matter of minutes.
“Our PS5 Standard Console Pre-Order went live at 9:30 AM and sold out four minutes later,” Raru said.
“If you look at what has happened globally with PS5 pre-orders, any retailer which does manage to secure PS5 Console pre-order stock can expect these to sell out extremely quickly.
The company told MyBroadband this initial allocation was for the Standard version of the console only, while accessories were limited to the DualSense Controllers, Remote, and Pulse 3D Headset.
It expects demand to remain very high for the foreseeable future and anticipates a second round of PlayStation 5 allocations to be made available.
“There is no date yet as to when these new allocations will be available from. We do hope that it will be before the end of the year, but nothing has been confirmed as yet,” Raru said.
It also expects strong demand for the new Xbox consoles.
“From the wishlists for the Xbox Consoles, the current ratio is 3 to 1 for the Xbox Series X console versus the Series S,” Raru said.
BT Games
BT Games told MyBroadband it offered its allocation to customers who had previously expressed interest in acquiring the console.
Because of this, its pre-orders were sold out within 10 minutes.
Although it was unable to share the number of PS5 consoles it was allocated, it indicated the Digital Edition constituted only about 8% of its total consoles sold.
It said it will be getting a second drop of both the Standard and Digital Editions three to four weeks after launch.
“We have both SKUs coming in but the digital allocation is about 10% of the total number,” BT Games said.
It also said there appears to be a large shipment of PS5s earmarked for mid-January.
BT Games will be opening pre-orders for the Xbox Series X and Series S at 09:00 AM on 22 September.
It said it has received a larger allocation for this console and has the option to get more stock in the event that it is sold out.
“Microsoft has prioritised South Africa with stock allocation and believes it will be able to meet more demand,” BT Games said.
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