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Amazon Prime Day 2022 Dates: When Is Prime Day?

Amazon Prime Day 2022 kicks off on July 12 and runs for a full 48 hours.

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Following two abnormal years for Amazon Prime Day, the annual sales event is returning to its July roots. Amazon Prime Day 2022 is set for July 12-13, so we're less than a week away from the massive sale. Early Prime Day deals are already live, and we expect more deals to become available throughout the week leading up to the 48-hour event. As always, Prime Day 2022 won't be the only big sale to shop. Other major retailers will be running anti-Prime Day sales to compete with Amazon. All told, Prime Day 2022 will offer a can't-miss deals opportunity across gaming, tech, entertainment, and more.

Prime day 2022 deals

When is Prime Day 2022?

Amazon Prime Day 2022 is July 12-13--the sale will run for a full 48 hours. We had predicted that Prime Day would fall on either July 11-12 or July 18-19, based on historical data. In an interesting twist, Prime Day will not start on a Monday for the first time in the sale's history. Instead, Prime Day will run for 48 hours starting at 12 AM PT / 3 AM ET on Tuesday, July 12.

Prime Day 2022 free games

In addition to deals, Amazon has a cool promotion that's running in the lead-up and during Prime Day for the first time. The Start Freeloading event gives Prime members the opportunity to claim more than 30 free games, 25 of which are available to claim now:

  • Rain World
  • Samurai Shodown II
  • Serial Cleaner
  • The King of Fighters 2002
  • The King of Fighters 2000
  • Metal Slug 2
  • 10 Second Ninja X
  • Death Squared
  • The Darkside Detective
  • The Darkside Detective: A Fumble in the Dark
  • Hue
  • The Crow's Eye
  • Manual Samuel
  • Metal Unit
  • Fatal Fury Special
  • The Metronomicon: Slay the Dance Floor
  • 8Doors: Arum's Afterlife Adventure
  • Bang Bang Racing
  • Gone Viral
  • Road Trip
  • Puzzle of the Year
  • Pumped BMX Pro
  • Giana Sisters: Twisted Dreams
  • Addling Adventures
  • Clouds & Sheep 2

Amazon has also confirmed some of the titles that will be free during Prime Day, including Mass Effect: Legendary Edition, Grid Legends, Need for Speed Heat, and Star Wars Jedi Academy.

What is Prime Day?

Amazon Prime Day 2022
Amazon Prime Day 2022

If you haven't experienced the annual sales bonanza, Amazon Prime Day is essentially a condensed Black Friday sale. Outside of Black Friday and Cyber Monday, Prime Day has become the biggest sales event of the year. And it's not just Amazon with great deals--major retailers will jump in on the fun with anti-Prime Day sales. Often times, these sales at competing retailers kick off the weekend prior to Prime Day to try and steal Amazon's thunder.

The deals at Amazon are exclusive to Prime members, while competing retailers tend to offer deals to anyone. That said, with an increased emphasis on Walmart+, PowerUp Rewards Pro, Totaltech Unlocked, and other subscription services at competing retailers, it's certainly possible that some of the hottest deals--including any PS5 restocks--will be limited to members at competing retailers, too.

All told, you can expect thousands upon thousands of deals at Amazon and other major retailers that week. From gaming and tech to entertainment and toys, just about every category of product you can think of will be on sale.

What deals do we expect on Prime Day?

Amazon Prime Day is not super predictable when it comes to the actual products that will be on sale. The exception here is Amazon brand devices such as the Echo Show, Kindle, Echo Dot, and Fire TVs. Amazon brand devices are always on sale for their best prices of the year during Prime Day. Amazon device Prime Day deals are already live, too.

While we cannot definitively say which gaming products will be on sale, there will definitely be some stellar deals on Nintendo Switch, PS5, and Xbox Series X games. In fact, there are already some great Switch, PS5, and Xbox game deals available now.

In addition to games, Prime Day always offers a great opportunity to purchase gaming-related tech such as controllers, headsets, and gaming laptops/PCs. And, much like Black Friday, some of the best Prime Day deals are often found on 4K TVs, including budget options such as the Fire TVs that are already on sale at Amazon.

Will there be console restocks during Prime Day?

We wouldn't be surprised to see PS5 restocks during Prime Day.
We wouldn't be surprised to see PS5 restocks during Prime Day.

When it comes to consoles, it'll be interesting to see if PS5 restocks occur during Prime Day. Sony recently released a PS5 bundle that includes Horizon Forbidden West, which seems like a prime (sorry) candidate for an enticing Prime Day drop at Amazon and other retailers. We've seen an increase in PS5 restocks lately, so it wouldn't be surprising to see a few major retailers have them in stock.

On the other hand, we wouldn't be surprised at all to see actual deals on the Xbox Series X|S. We've seen quite a few Xbox Series S deals recently, including a bundle at Walmart that contains the Series S and Halo Infinite for $300 (it's still available!).

Meanwhile, Nintendo Switch console deals are rare, so we wouldn't expect to see discounts--at least not on the Switch OLED. Bundles featuring the regular Switch or Switch Lite are a possibility, though.

Editor's Note: Article updated on July 5, 2022

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