Want to buy an Xbox Series X or Series S? Retailers are still surprising us with fresh stock

buy Xbox Series X Xbox Series S stock
(Image credit: Future)

Update: Ok, so yesterday's Xbox Series X stock drop turned out a little better than expected. Originally it was only Best Buy who were supposed to be getting stock in around 8am CT. That allocation seemed to go pretty fast as epected.

Then Walmart surprised us by unleashing a few waves of stock from around 3pm ET. There wasn't much warning at all on that drop, so we actually saw units remain online for much longer than Best Buy's earlier in the day. Of course, the Xbox Series X and Series S is now sold out at both stores, but given we thought we wouldn't really see any more for the rest of the year, we think it's well worth keeping your eye on the ball for the next few days. Amazon in particular has been quiet of late, so you should check in as often as you can there. We've got a list of retailer links to check right below.

Original story follows...

You can buy an Xbox Series X or Xbox Series S, potentially just minutes from now, at Best Buy. This is an online-only affair, but if you do manage to bag one, you'll be able to pick it up at your local store. This is likely the last chance you'll get this year, so don't miss out.

Stock is coming online "sometime after 8am CT." That's a little vague for sure, but we've got the links you need to camp on below for your best chance to buy an Xbox Series X. Or if you're after the budget model, the Xbox Series S will be available too. Elsewhere, Best Buy is having a wider 3-Day Sale.

Both consoles have been super rare of late, but the Series S has been especially shy. Don't forget though, the Series S is much less powerful, has a smaller hard drive, and does not have a disc-drive for game discs.

Further down the page, we have a list of other US merchants and also some UK retailers we'd advise checking for stock as often as you can. It really is looking like most stores are done for the year now in all honesty, which is why we're expecting the Best Buy website to get absolutely battered today as demand is set to be huge.

Whenever we've had official advanced warning of fresh Xbox Series X stock or upcoming opportunities to buy a PS5, we've seen retailer websites really struggle to cope with the influx of shoppers all hitting it at once trying to get one of these elusive consoles, and we expect today to be no different.

So we'd advise getting yourself logged into your Best Buy account (create one now if you don't have one already) and making sure your address and banking details are all added too. This is because even if you get an Xbox into your basket, the site might crash during the checkout process, so you don't want to go through any extra loading screens or spend time entering your details at this time. Trust us, crashes during checkout are very much a thing in 2020.

We might be waiting around for Xbox Series X stock to actually turn up thanks to that vague timeslot, so do keep checking you're still logged into your account as some sites have been logging users out if they've been dormant for a while or if the site's having issues. 

We'll keep this page updated with the latest information and hopefully, Best Buy will let us all know once stock allocation has all gone so we don't have to wear out the refresh key on our laptop. Good luck folks.

More Xbox Series X retailers

If you're looking for some other ideas of what to buy someone for Christmas, be sure to take a look at our best gifts for gamers feature. You should absolutely check out our brand new guide on the best Xbox Series X headsets too.

If you'd like to know a bit more about the consoles, be sure to take a look at our Xbox Series X review and Xbox Series S review.

Brendan Griffiths

Brendan is GamesRadar's former Managing Editor of the Hardware & eCommerce team. He also spent time as the Deals Editor at our sister site, TechRadar. He's obsessed with finding the best tech, games, gadgets, and hardware at the lowest price. He also spends way too much of his free time trying to decide what new things to watch on Netflix, then just rewatches It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia instead. Nowadays you'll find him as the eCommerce Content Director for Future's mobile tech sites, Android Central, iMore, and Windows Central.