PS5 UK stock – live: Latest restock news from Game, Argos, Very and more

All right, let’s get this stock tracking action started. John Lewis & Partners hasn’t restocked the PS5 since Wednesday 29 December 2021, so we’d like to think that it would be next to restock, but that isn’t a guarantee.

While it’s one of the very few retailers who have yet to drop at all in 2022, it’s not uncommon to see the retailer go two months between restocks. There is usually a six to eight week gap between John Lewis drops regularly.

If it does drop this week, when could we expect the shipment? The retailer usually restocks the console on a Tuesday, but it has dropped on a Wednesday and a Friday before. It usually restocks at around 7am, so it’s unlikely to restock today now.

Good morning PS5 hunters and welcome back to The Independent’s live PS5 stock tracker. Our mission? To secure you all a PlayStation 5. While February was a dire month for restocks, we’re turning over a new leaf this morning because it’s the first day of the month, and we’re hoping that means more retailers will be getting shipments of the elusive console.

Both John Lewis & Partners and Asda have yet to restock at all in 2022, so we’re hoping one of these retailers will be next to restock. We’re also hoping for a Very drop either today or next week on Tuesday.

It’s been a ghostly quiet day here on the PS5 blog, with not a console in sight, but that’s been the general sentiment for most of the month.

There have only been 12 restocks this whole month, that’s worse than January’s 13, making it the worst month for restocks on record since we started tracking consoles in May.

ShopTo and the BT Shop come out on top this month. The former has dropped consoles twice in February, and the BT Shop’s drop last week ran for two whole days. Smyths Toys may also have had two restocks in February, but we weren’t able to confirm that the first drop took place, so we’re sticking with just one. Here’s the full list for your perusal:

Let’s just hope that things start to pick back up in March, but it has been a pretty dire start to 2022 so far. We’ll be back tomorrow morning to bring you through all of the week’s restocks. Catch you all then.

Missed out on the PlayStation Direct drop last week? UK residents can now register their interest to buy a PS5 on the PlayStation Direct store. If selected, you’ll receive an exclusive invitation to buy a console from the retailer.

All you need is the email address associated with your PSN account and off you go. Invitations are usually sent out at 8am in the morning. Any remaining consoles are made available to everyone else at around 10am.

The Steam Deck reviews are in, and we were frankly impressed with it when we got our hands on the large, (admittedly hard to hold) portable device.

“The most innovative thing to happen to PC gaming in about as long as we can remember, the Steam deck is an astonishing piece of hardware,” our writer said in their review. “Limited battery life is a major stumbling block for anyone who plans on taking it on a long-haul flight any time soon, but for most use cases the requirement to plug the handheld in every few hours is inconvenient rather than a deal-breaker.”

“Aggressively priced, completely open to modding and with the full weight of the Steam library behind it, Valve’s pioneering handheld feels like the beginning of a new generation for PC gaming,” they add.

“What’s the difference between the two consoles?” we hear you ask. Well, the differences between the two devices are very subtle. The answer boils down to – you’ll be pleased to know – very little.

As the name suggests, the disc edition features an Ultra HD Blu-ray disc drive, the same as the PS4, the digital doesn’t. This does mean that while the digital edition PS5 costs less (£359), you won’t be able to play physical PS5 or PS4 games on it because there’s no disc slot. For all the details read our explainer below:

The free PS Plus games for March have just been announced and this month looks like a doozy. PS5 gamers can look forward to Ghostrunner (£24.99, Playstation.com) a first-person blade-wielding parkour/sci-fi adventure with intense combat and one-hit-kill mechanics.

Over on the PS4, players can enjoy ARK: Survival Evolved (£24.99, Playstation.com), a massively multiplayer online game where players must live on a remote island, craft items and fight or tame dinosaurs. Gamers can also enjoy Team Sonic Racing (£34.99, Playstation.com), a kart racing spin-off featuring Sonic the Hedgehog and his friends.

Want more shopping insights? Why not sign up to the IndyBest newsletter to access the best deals and round-ups of the week’s must-have products chosen by IndyBest experts. Dropping into your inbox every Friday morning, the handy digest features items from our tried and tested reviews by pros in the field – helping you make the most informed choice with your hard-earned cash.

Earlier this month, Smyths Toys restocked the digital edition PS5 console, but it was pretty much the only retailer to do so in February. If you’ve been following our stock updates for a while, you’ve probably noticed that the PS5 disc edition console is far easier to buy than the digital edition.

It’s been this way ever since the console was first released in 2020. When Eurogamer spoke to sources at various retailers before the console launched, it was told that retailers had been allocated around 25 per cent digital edition consoles and 75 per cent disc edition consoles.

We don’t know if the situation has changed since then, but we still see fewer digital edition consoles dropping than disc edition consoles. Retailers themselves might also prefer to order in the disc edition console over digital – they cost more (£449.99) for one, and they can bundle it with physical games to charge a premium.

Even though Sony built a lighter PS5 console, it still seems like the digital edition is harder to find than the disc.

All right, the PS5 might be really hard to buy right now, but if you’re at your wits end, then you might want to hop over to the dark side and buy yourself one of Microsoft’s next-gen consoles.

That’s right, the Xbox series X is currently in stock right now at a number of different retailers, including Game, Asda, Smyths Toys and Currys. Want to find out how to secure one? Head over to our Xbox series X live stock tracker for all the details.