The name ‘Black Friday’ implies that the Black Friday sales take place on a single day—perhaps, you might ascertain, on a Friday. And while that’s technically true—Black Friday is an actual single day scheduled for November 28—the sales event actually starts around the beginning of November. Indeed, I’ve been covering Australian Black Friday PC gaming deals for weeks now, especially from the likes of Mwave, Amazon, eBay and JB Hi-Fi. Check out my continuously updated guide: there’s a lot.
Fair enough, but perhaps the most critical question is: When does all this end? People waiting for a pay cheque before they can take advantage of the Black Friday bargains might reasonably ask this question. And thankfully the answer is mostly in favour of those who can’t spend big before or on Black Friday—some deals will verily go on into December.
Black Friday deals tend to endure on the Saturday and Sunday that immediately follow. But more importantly, the Monday after Black Friday, which this year lands on December 1, is the date for Cyber Monday. Cyber Monday was traditionally an online-only equivalent to the bricks ‘n’ mortar-centric Black Friday, but nowadays the distinction is basically redundant.
So, surely the end of Cyber Monday marks the end of the big Black Friday sales season, right? Think again! If you thought the name ‘Cyber Monday’ makes it pretty clear that the sales event takes place on a single day (perhaps, a Monday), then you have not been paying attention to the logic of modern sales events. Nowadays Cyber Monday is morphing into Cyber Week: you can expect at least some deals to run for the entirety of next week as well.
So that means the short, unofficial-but-true answer to when does Black Friday end is: at close of play on December 5. Even then, I’m sure some deals will stick around during the following weekend.
However, it’s worth noting that Cyber Week deals tend to be fewer than Black Friday, and when it comes to big ticket items, you might find stock depleted by the time December rolls around (this tends to happen a lot with gaming consoles, but last week some significant discounts on RAM lasted for all of half a day). I’ve been covering these events for years, and Cyber Monday tends not to throw up many new PC gaming deals. Most of the time, it’s a continuation of what has already been discounted for Black Friday sales.
I will also defer to the retailers themselves, who sometimes deign to provide a Black Friday / Cyber Week ending deadline (but not all do!). Notice how all-over-the-place these end dates are for retailers who have already kicked off their sales:
Here are a few PC gaming highlights from the Black Friday sales season so far. If you want everything I’ve collected so far, myself and Ben Mansill are keeping track of all the best PC gaming deals on our live hub.
