People Are Camping Outside GameStop For A Chance To Buy A PS5 Or Xbox Series X

Among the hottest items up for sale this holiday shopping season are undoubtedly the new next-gen consoles, as stock of the PlayStation 5 and the Xbox Series X has been extremely limited. And that led to some extreme measures last week from shoppers who were willing to spend long stretches of time camped outside of stores, just for the chance to potentially get a console.

Preorders of the next-gen systems went in the blink of an eye, and that's a scenario that has repeated time and again as online retailers have restocked the PS5 and Xbox Series X/S. More consoles did arrive in physical stores for a Black Friday restock, and more are now potentially expected on Cyber Monday. But in the case of the units that arrived in stores last week, the way to guarantee one was to wait in line early. That led to scenarios where eager console buyers waited hours--or upwards of a day in some cases--for stores to open and begin offering their limited supply of consoles.

As documented on places like Twitter, there are a number of examples of people camping outside of GameStop stores ahead of Black Friday:

Other people even went so far as to bring their beds with them as they braved the frigid winter air:

Sony faced "unprecedented" demand for the PS5 when it was released, with stock selling out almost as soon as it arrived and creating the "largest console launch ever" for the company. Over in the UK, the experience of buying a PS5 was soured by an army of bots that instantly snapped up any available units, allowing scalpers to resell the consoles at a massively marked-up price.

While the PlayStation 5's launch has been bolstered by a strong lineup of games such as Demon's Souls, Spider-Man: Miles Morales, Sackboy: A Big Adventure, and Astro's Playroom, the Xbox Series X and Series S consoles also make for a tempting purchase thanks partly to the incredible value of the Xbox Game Pass subscription service and its selection of games.

You can check out our Xbox Cyber Monday order guide for the best deals on the console and games for it, or if you prefer a Sony device, our PS5 order guide will also have you covered with stock alerts that'll keep you informed of when you can next try to buy one.