Black Friday is the biggest sales event of the year for every major retailer. It’s also generally the best time to buy just about anything at a discount if you’re trying to save money. With the majority of these sales taking place online these days, finding deals is easier than ever. But finding good deals has become increasingly difficult without a little help.
If you’re hoping to plan ahead for Black Friday this year, the IGN Finds team has you covered with everything you need to know to make smart shopping decisions in 2026. You can find all of our most recent deals coverage on our Black Friday hub or scroll down for more info about what to expect this month.
Black Friday Sale Dates
Black Friday always takes place on the day after Thanksgiving, which is November 27 this year. Of course, Black Friday sales don’t really start on that Friday anymore. There are already early discounts happening across major retailers right now, but for a quick look at when the official Black Friday sales begin we’ve got an up-to-date list below:
When do early deals start?
Best Buy, Target, Walmart, and Costco have all already announced early Black Friday sales with different start times. Target will be the first to drop a true early Black Friday sale from November 5-7, followed by Best Buy with a November 6 start date.
What Deals Should You Expect?
Just because every major retailer will have a Black Friday sale doesn’t mean everything will be on sale this year. That being said, there are a few key categories you can absolutely expect to see good deals on in 2026. The first, and most obvious thing, is 4K TVs. Black Friday is, and will always be, the best time to buy a new TV at a low price. This same logic carries over to things like computer monitors and projectors.
The other Black Friday staple you can expect is Apple products. If you’re hoping to grab the latest tech within the iOS ecosystem, November is absolutely the time to do so. AirPods, iPads, and Apple Watches will pretty much always go on sale for their lowest prices. All of the major retailers tend to compete to drop the latest AirPods models to a lower price than their competitors to drum up more online business.
If you’re in the market for toy deals, November is a great time to find discounts on less popular items and franchises. It’s one of the best times of the year to buy LEGO, for example, but the majority of popular new sets for 2026 aren’t going to get discounts. What you will find is major retailers dropping prices on older toys and LEGO sets that are up for retirement at the end of the year.
Similar to toy deals, other physical media is sure to go on sale, but the selection will likely vary wildly. You can likely expect sites like Amazon to start dropping book deals early in the month ahead of the bigger sales. The same goes for 4K Blu-rays, board games, and vinyl records that tend to get swept up in various BOGO sales at Amazon and Target. You can also expect deals on physical video games for Nintendo, Xbox, and PS5 to drop a bit before Black Friday as well.
What Probably Won’t Go on Sale?
Black Friday may be the best time to find deals, but that doesn’t mean that every single product is going to get a discount. We’re also in a unique position where economic factors have actually increased the price of some items to new highs, making it impossible to tell if something is a deal or just a bit of price normalization disguised as savings. So with that in mind, let’s dive into some of the products you probably won’t find a good discount on this year.
Video Game Consoles
If you’ve been following gaming news in 2026, things are looking pretty grim. We’ve already seen price increases on the Switch 2, Xbox, and PS5 and it’s only getting worse. Xbox has even gone as far as to recommend that folks start trading in their unused consoles to help with the shortage. So yeah, it’s pretty unlikely that we’ll see any sort of console deal this year—especially with GTA 6 coming out right before Black Friday.
The one exception to this is likely going to be Nintendo Switch 2 bundles. While these aren’t exactly a great deal, they do tend to help you save at least some money on games and accessories. The best time to buy a Switch 2 was before the price increase, but the second best time is Black Friday.
Gaming PCs, GPUs, and RAM
PC gaming is having a difficult year and its all thanks to the influx of AI usage across the world. GPU prices have gone through the roof and the RAM shortage is likely only going to get worse in the years to come. All of this means that buying a gaming PC or gaming laptop has become more expensive than ever. If you want a high-end gaming rig at a decent price, you’re pretty much out of luck.
That doesn’t mean there won’t be any discounts available this year, but those discounts aren’t going to be nearly as good as what we saw two years ago for the same products. It’s pretty much now or never if you want to buy a gaming PC, but good luck finding anything good for under $1,500 this year.
4K Blu-ray Players
With physical media experiencing a resurgence this year, it’s become surprisingly hard to find a 4K Blu-ray player anywhere. The IGN Finds team noticed earlier this year that prices for the players were skyrocketing, if you could even find them in stock anywhere. So while Black Friday is a great time to buy 4K Blu-rays at a discount, you absolutely aren’t going to find a way to play them for cheap.
Jacob Kienlen is a Senior Audience Development Strategist and Writer for IGN. Born and raised in Portland, Oregon, he has considered the Northwest his home for his entire life. With a bachelor’s degree in communication and 10 years of professional writing experience, his expertise is spread across a variety of different pop culture topics — from TV series to books and the latest LEGO sets.
