How Fast Did the PS5 Sell Out? Blindingly Quick According to All Data Points

To put it bluntly upfront, the PlayStation 5 sold out exquisitely fast when sales began on November 12, 2020. We‘re talking minutes, if not seconds once pre-orders went live at major retailers. Let‘s get into the hard numbers:

As you can see from the data, most retailers sold completely out of their launch allotments in under an hour, shattering previous sellout records set by prior PlayStation launches.

Why So Fast vs. Previous PlayStation Consoles?

The root factors driving the lighting fast sellouts centered around tremendous pent-up demand and severe supply constraints:

Pent-Up Demand

• The PS5 launched 7 years after the PS4, representing the longest gap between PlayStation generations
• Gamers were highly eager to upgrade after such a long period without new console hardware

This led the PS5 to break launch sales records – selling more units in its first day than any prior PlayStation console over a similar period.

Supply Issues

• Production issues driven by pandemic-related constraints severely limited launch stock
• For example, key component shortages left Sony struggling to source adequate semiconductors

Pair tremendous demand with such limited supply – just 2 million units at launch globally – and you have all the ingredients necessary for instant lightning sellouts.

Bot Scalpers Made Matters Even Worse

Another factor exacerbating the supply issues was the emergence of bot scalpers leveraging automation to snatch up inventory the second it went live:

• Bots run by scalpers could checkout 1,000s times faster than humans attempting manual purchases
• Often entire retailer launch allotments ended up with scalpers, where units were then resold at outrageous markups on secondary markets
• For example, the PS5 Digital Edition retailed for $399, but routinely resold for $1,000+ post launch!

The supply challenges enabling this scalper-fueled mayhem were further illuminated in Sony‘s own words:

“It is currently difficult to predict when semiconductor supply will normalize…”

This was central to the extremes of PS5 shortages through 2021 and well into 2022, where restock events continued seeing units vanish in mere seconds or minutes.

But over a year since launch now in 2024, production pipelines are finally coursing more fluidly for Sony and retailers. So let‘s examine the current state of PS5 availability next.

Where Do Restock Situations Stand Today Heading into 2023

While still inconsistently in and out of stock, 2023 is increasingly showing longer restock windows:

And Sony has publicly stated that PS5 production shipments continue steadily improving month over month. The company clearly learned from the massive demand miscalculations early on and is investing greatly in supply chain resiliency to help normalize inventory channels.

This leaves the current availability outlook as cautious but optimistic. While you‘ll still need to act fast once those Twitter restock alerts ding since pent-up demand remains and will linger until wider saturation, you shouldn‘t need to smash F5 with quite the intensity through 2023 at least!

So in closing, when asking "how fast did the PS5 sell out?", the numbers show blazingly fast – most retailers were left bone dry in 60 minutes or much less upon launch orders going live. A year on, durations are longer but constrained supply still rules the PlayStation roost for now. But as Sony builds up inventory and churns out those drip-feeds of churning production queue euphoria, gamers can hopefully sign-off their PS5 twitter alerts sooner than later!