The holiday season has arrived and with it rising anxiety for families and gamers hoping to acquire aPlayStation 5or Xbox Series X/S. Component shortages continue to drive shortages for next-gen consoles, however, leading thePS5and Xbox Series X/S consoles to remain sold out across the United States. Now imagine a situation, then, where a major retailer is implied to have stockpiled a massive collection of PS5s via a TikTok recording from a distribution center. Needless to say, there’s a lot of frustration going around on social media.
The viral TikTok in question was posted by user hishamhasan3. Their TikTok shows a recording from inside what appears to be a Walmart distribution center showing warehouse racks full ofPS5 consoles. The TikTok’s voiceover half-sarcastically says, “This is why y’all don’t have the ps5 because Walmarts hoarding all of them,” with a joy emoji. An exact count of the number of PS5s on the racks isn’t clear, but it’s likely in the hundreds if not a couple thousand.
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TikTok users have watched the post from hishamhasan3 in staggering numbers. At the moment, theviral TikTokhas well over 3 million views, over 350 thousand likes, and is nearing 5 thousand comments. A majority of the posts are surprisingly in good humor. One user said no one’s raiding Area 51 anymore, it’s time to raid Walmart. Others mention not having $500 for a PS5 in the first place. There’s no shortage of console warring and teasing about already having a PS5 in the comments, too.
One common line of thought is that Walmart must be stockpiling PS5s in preparation for the upcoming holiday sales surge. In other words, havingPS5s on sale for Black Fridayensures that customers will be in-store shopping throughout Thanksgiving weekend. However, other posters, including at least one claiming to work at Walmart, says this is normal and that this is typical for Walmart and that the store only releases small batches of its stockpile at a time.
Without an official statement fromWalmarton the subject, it’s difficult to speculate on the issue. Walmart is the largest retailer in the United States, with nearly 5,000 locations across all 50 states. A few thousand PS5s in a distribution center seems like a small number with that in mind. That said, it would make sense to stockpile for Black Friday, or for other holiday sales events, too.
Sadly, even if Walmart unleashed its full PS5 inventory today there would almost certainly still be a massive shortage of consoles in the US. Sony even confirmed in May that it expects thePS5 shortage to continue into 2022. That’s despite the PS5 selling over 10 million consoles faster than the PS4 did. Still, the viral TikTok, its comments, and similar posts across social media are a valued form of catharsis. There are still several months to pick up aPS5beforeHorizon Forbidden Westlaunches next February, after all.
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