When Is Amazon Prime Day 2018? Big Sale Coming Next Week

There are just a few days to go until Amazon Prime Day 2018. As we've seen in recent years, Amazon holds a major, one-day sale in July that is akin to Black Friday, although it's limited to a single retailer. It sees prices drop on a wide variety of products, ranging from Echoes and Kindles to video games, TVs, electronics, furniture, apparel, and just about every other category of items Amazon sells, including some bizarre stuff (as the video above shows). 2018's Prime Day is coming up quite fast, and it'll feature at least one major difference: Despite the name, it'll actually run for more than 24 hours.

The one key catch with Prime Day is that you have to be an Amazon Prime member to take advantage of the sale prices. With July underway and the event approaching, Amazon has confirmed the date for Prime Day 2018. It's a 36-hour event that will kick off on July 16 at 12 PM PT (3 PM ET / 12 PM BST) and run through July 17.

If you're not a Prime member already, you can sign up here. In addition to Prime Day discounts, Prime members get free two-day shipping on many products, access to Amazon Prime Video, Prime Music, free books, and a free Twitch Prime membership, which includes free PC games each month. This month, to build anticipation for Prime Day, Amazon/Twitch Prime members are getting 21 free PC games. A free 30-day trial of Prime is available for new members that will let you take advantage of Prime Day deals without having to fork over money for a subscription of your own.

An Amazon Prime subscription costs $119 for a one-year membership or $13 for a single month. Students get an even better deal: a free six-month trial, with a monthly price of only $6.49 after that.

To learn more about Amazon's big July event, here's everything you need to know about Prime Day 2018. Some early deals have already gone live, and we'll have in-depth roundups of the best offers once the sale is officially live.