The Best Black Friday Deals in Games for 2021

By Garrett Martin  |  November 23, 2021 | 1:15pm
Video Games Lists black friday
The Best Black Friday Deals in Games for 2021

Even though it’s been a year since the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S came out, it’s still no easier to actually get your hands on either than it was at launch. Supply chain issues have continued to impact production of all consoles, including the new Nintendo Switch OLED and the ever-popular original and Lite versions, and so the console bundle deals you’d typically see during Black Friday just aren’t there this year. If you already own one of those systems, though, you’ll find widespread discounts on games for all three at most major retailers.

Discounts on Deathloop and Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy

The best game deals you’ll find across the board are for recent releases like Deathloop and Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy. You’ll find the PlayStation 5 exclusive Deathloop for $30 off at a variety of retailers, and the multi-platform Guardians also $30 cheaper on both the Xbox and the PlayStation. Given how recently they were released, how good both of them are, and the lack of bundles for the new consoles, getting $30 off either of these games is probably the best deal you’ll find this week.

Nintendo Switch Black Friday Deals

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Games published by Nintendo rarely ever go on sale, but you’ll find many discounted this week at various retailers. Best Buy, whose main Nintendo Black Friday page conveniently includes links at the very top to different pages that filter out based on price point, is a good place to find deals on games like Paper Mario: The Origami King, Super Mario Maker 2, and more.

Best Buy’s Nintendo Switch Black Friday Deals

GameStop’s discounts on Switch games can go as high as 60%, although don’t expect that on most titles. Also, when searching their site for deals, make sure you select the “New” box under Condition, so you don’t wind up seeing “pre-owned” games that are only one or two bucks less than a brand new one.

Gamestop’s Nintendo Switch Black Friday Deals

Target has discounts on a variety of Switch games new and old. Most games are from $5 to $20 off, although you can find major discounts on some titles—at $15 Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle, for example, is $45 off its standard retail price.

Target’s Nintendo Switch Black Friday Deals

Walmart also has discounts on most Switch games, and actually beats Target by exactly 99 cents on that Mario + Rabbids deal. They’re also selling Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit, the cool little Mario Kart spinoff with an actual remote control car, at a 50% discount—it’s $50 instead of $99.

Walmart’s Nintendo Switch Black Friday Deals

PlayStation Black Friday Deals

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Target’s discounts on PS5 games can reach as high as 60%—that’s mostly on third-party games from last year, like Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla and Watch Dogs: Legion. You can mostly expect $20 off titles from 2021, including It Takes Two, Returnal, MLB The Show 21, and the excellent new Ratchet and Clank game.

Target’s PlayStation Black Friday Deals

Best Buy once again conveniently breaks their selection down across recent releases, games under $20, and games for $9.99—that last group is basically the PlayStation Hits selection from the PS4 era, all of which are playable on the PlayStation 5, if you’ve never given Bloodborne or God of War a shot.

Best Buy’s PlayStation Black Friday Deals

GameStop is offering some deep discounts on both new and used PlayStation 5 games. Again, we’ve filtered out the used games on this link, so you don’t wind up paying almost the exact same price for a hand-me-down. (For real: used games should be cheaper than they are.) You can find $25 off the recent Far Cry 6, $20 off Paste fave Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart, and $30 off launch titles like Demon’s Souls and Sackboy: A Big Adventure—among other deals.

GameStop’s PlayStation Black Friday Deals

Walmart’s slashed prices on many PlayStation 5 and PlayStation 4 games, and the way its website works it’s a little hard to separate the two systems out from each other. Expect $20 off a variety of recent releases, $25 off Far Cry 6, and even bigger discounts on sports games like NBA 2K22 and Madden NFL 22.

Walmart’s PlayStation Black Friday Deals

Xbox Black Friday Deals

You can expect discounts similar to what you see with the PlayStation 4 and 5 across the board when it comes to the Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S at most retailers. At Walmart that means steep price reductions on select major sports titles and games from 2020 or earlier. A handful of older Xbox One games, which are playable on both the Xbox Series X and S as well, can be found for $10, including Gears 5 and Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice.

Walmart’s Xbox Black Friday Deals

Unsurprisingly, you’ll find the same basic deals at Target, too. If you can’t tell, these stores keep tabs on each other, y’know, and try to stick to price parity, especially during Black Friday. So expect anywhere from 20% to 60% off games for both the Xbox One and the Xbox Series X|S.

Target’s Xbox Black Friday Deals

Would you believe you can find basically the same deals at GameStop as you’ll find at Target, Walmart or Best Buy? Nuts, right? Well, it’s true. Shockingly. So some pretty steep cuts on the latest sports games, $25 off Far Cry 6, and anywhere from 20% to 60% off other titles. Sadly nobody seems to have any deals on the excellent Forza Horizon 5, which is understandable, since it just came out like two weeks ago.

GameStop’s Xbox Black Friday Deals

And finally on the Xbox front, Best Buy has many of the same deals, as well. Shocking!

Best Buy’s Xbox Black Friday Deals

Arcade1Up Home Arcade Deals

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Best Buy has discounts on a few different Arcade1Up models, including both upright cabinets for Pac-Man and the Ms. Pac-Man / Galaga 1981 Edition, as well as the smaller counter-top versions of Ms. Pac-Man and Super Pac-Man. There are also deals on various stools and other accessories.

Best Buy’s Arcade1Up Black Friday Deals

You can also save a little bit on certain Arcade1Up units straight from the company itself. If you’ve ever wanted a smaller-than-usual arcade cabinet with Frogger and a couple of Time Pilot games in your house, this is your cheapest opportunity yet.

Arcade1Up Black Friday Deals

Oculus Quest 2 Black Friday Deals

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You won’t find actual discounts on the Oculus Quest VR headset, an all-in-one virtual reality device that doesn’t need to be hooked up to a computer, at most major retailers. You will find a deal that gets you a $50 gift card if you buy the Quest 2 at stores including Target, Best Buy, and GameStop. Walmart, meanwhile, will bundle a carrying case with a retail value of $50 with every purchase of an Oculus Quest 2.

Senior editor Garrett Martin writes about videogames, comedy, travel, theme parks, wrestling, and anything else that gets in his way. He’s also on Twitter @grmartin.

 
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