Unless you've somehow managed to avoid Amazon's carpet bomb-style advertising about the sale, you might be wondering if the gaming deals for Prime Day are actually any good. Isn't it just about shifting Kindles and Echo Dots? As it so happens, no. Well, kind of. It's a yes and no sorta thing.
Sure, Amazon's event has always emphasized price cuts for its own products. It's why you can guarantee the biggest overall discounts going to Alexa or Fire Sticks. But that's not the whole picture. Alongside masses of reduced tech, gaming deals make up a significant chunk of the annual Prime Day savings. So long as you know where to look, you can even find some hidden bargains with Prime Day gaming deals - be it on PlayStation games, Xbox accessories, consoles, tabletop favorites, or something else entirely. Basically, it's not something to snooze on.
On the cheap
Sales are always a good time to stock up on gaming accessories of all kinds. Keyboards, mice, controllers, headsets, and the rest enjoy some of the most eye-catching discounts during Prime Day, so I'd usually recommend waiting until then (or Black Friday, if you're happy to hold on a little longer) to pick up whatever you're looking for.
As an example, Razer's Barracuda X headset dipped to its lowest ever price last year thanks to a $30 reduction. Similarly, the WD Black SN850 1TB SSD for PS5 crashed down by $100 to a record low price in 2023's Prime Day gaming deals.
Affordable third-party gear does pretty well for itself too. Although they won't win any prizes for premium quality, you can be sure of getting cheap accessories like headsets during Prime Day. For instance, the Bengoo G9000 headset tumbled by 56% ahead of 2022's sale, dropping it to a mere $21.99. Was it any good? Well, I went in with my expectations low based on the price and its rather tacky use of RGB lighting on every available surface, but a glance through its 9,000+ user reviews revealed that the device was surprisingly decent. Indeed, 67% of customers gave it a full five stars. It has its flaws and won't challenge the best gaming headsets any time soon, but that sort of feedback speaks volumes. And for just over $20? You can't go wrong.
There are plenty of accessories we're hoping to see for a lot less this Prime Day, but the SteelSeries Arctis Nova Pro Wireless headset is at the top of our wishlist. We think it's one of the best headsets available, but is often out of many a gamer's price range. Because it's been heavily reduced on SteelSeries' store ahead of summer, that gives up hope we'll see a price match or better at Amazon for Prime Day.
It's a similar story with PC kit. Roccat's Magma keyboard is an excellent case in point. It's been one of the go-to budget choices in our list of the best gaming keyboards for ages, and usually gets an even more reasonable price during sales. We're hoping it drops back down to its all-time low of $24.99 in time for Prime Day 2024.
Amazon's own gaming gear does pretty well out of the event too. Its Luna controllers wind up being significantly cheaper than normal during the sales period, and these devices (which are compatible with mobile devices or PC) can tumble by well over 30% in price during the Prime Day sale. While they won't hold up to the tried-and-true Xbox Series X handset or PlayStation's DualSense, they make good controllers to use with your mobile devices, Steam, and Game Pass streaming.
Speaking of which, handy accessories such as the Backbone One mobile controller should be on offer again this time around if you're getting FOMO over gaming on the go - it works like a DIY PlayStation Portal at a fraction of the cost. More specifically, it tumbled in price by $30 during last year's sale. Because that brought it down to $69.99 rather than a square $100, Prime Day provided some impressive value.
This is very much the tip of the iceberg, so it's worth having a quick browse just in case you strike gold.
Heavy-hitters
However, the biggest and best offers that you'll really care about are on games themselves. Heavy-hitters for PlayStation, Xbox, and Nintendo Switch always get the lion's share of reductions, and these deals are often on the sort of thing you'd actually want. Last year we saw savings on big-hitters like Tears of the Kingdom, and I certainly wasn't expecting that - Nintendo products are notorious for holding their value.
In other words, anything is possible.
Helldivers 2 has been the surprise hit of 2024, and it's had everyone talking for months. Because the game hasn't ever had a hugely significant price cut, I'm hopeful it'll drop below the current low of $39.88. It's fantastic, so do yourself a favor and check it out.
I'd say that the games with the best chance of a massive discount are ones with a few months under their belt: we're talking Marvel's Spider-Man 2, Hogwarts Legacy, Dragon's Dogma 2, and the like. Spider-Man hasn't dropped much below $50 before now so is due a big price cut, and Hogwarts Legacy could conceivably dip below its previous low of $30 - it's certainly been out for long enough.
I'd be very, very surprised if Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League doesn't go on sale too. For one thing, it ended up being an acquired taste when it launched and the player count isn't exactly mind-blowing. With that in mind, I suspect it'll be hit with a big reduction - especially because it hasn't gone lower than $49 before now.
High rollers
Even the best board games and the best tabletop RPGs get surprisingly decent offers during the sale. I've seen D&D books slashed in price by up to 50% multiple times, and many have at least $20 knocked off the price tag every Prime Day. This is such a common occurrence that I'd bet on the same being true in 2024.
In terms of specifics, we almost always see classics such as King of Tokyo, Sherriff of Nottingham, and Jaipur get big reductions for Prime Day. While these often get cut in price no matter the time of year, Amazon's discounts during the sale tend to be better... or just as good at the very least. Want to boost your collection? This is a good opportunity.
Looking for a good Endgame-level storyline for your D&D group? Vecna: Eve of Ruin is perfect, and because it'll have been out for a couple of months by Prime Day, it should be in line for a big price slash. It hasn't ventured below $53.34 before, so that's the price to beat.
The more interesting savings are on 'hobby' games, though. Cascadia, Spirit Island, HeroQuest... these and games like them commonly drop further than normal in honor of the Amazon sale, and we don't see better offers until Black Friday.
Here's a case in point for you; Gloomhaven prequel Jaws of the Lion tumbled to just $19.99 instead of $50 during 2022's sale, while the original Gloomhaven went down to what was nearly its lowest ever price in the UK. When combined with massive cuts on favorites such as Villainous, Mysterium, Terraforming Mars, and beyond, Prime Day isn't shabby in terms of board game bargains (so much so that we have a dedicated Prime Day board game deals page to track it all).
As such, you should absolutely be keeping an eye out for gaming deals during Prime Day this July regardless of whether you play on console, PC, or tabletop. There's a good opportunity to save money on almost everything from accessories to hardware, so make sure that you don't sleep on it.
For more buying advice, don't miss our guide to this year's Prime Day TV deals, Prime Day gaming laptop deals, and Prime Day Lego deals.
