Update: Black Friday is over! But Cyber Monday is now upon us. As a result, we're collecting the best Cyber Monday PC gaming deals, rather than Black Friday ones. You can find some highlights below.
You probably fall into one of a couple different camps when it comes to Black Friday PC gaming deals. Either you're a deal-curious punter, looking to be tempted by a discount you can't resist; or you're a dedicated follower of trends and have been tracking the price of that one thing—be it a gaming laptop or a graphics card—to snag the perfect price; or you do all your Christmas shopping across a smug November. Or you're just frustrated that every retailer in the land is trying to wave a raft of deals under your nose from the start of October, and find it all but impossible to parse the actual bargains from the stock-shifting trash.
Either way, whether you're looking for a loved one or to treat yourself, we'll be heavily curating the deals on this page today to make sure you can see where your hard-earned money should go.
Here at PC Gamer we spend our working week testing the latest products to see if they're worthy of our PC gaming setups. And the ones we think worthwhile, we tell you about. That's why we do it: You shouldn't have to waste a penny on poorly-made products.
And, at a time with an increased focus on the cost of living across the world, it makes sense to save any large purchase for an event such as that around Black Friday, where every retailer in every corner of the globe will be cutting prices to tempt you into spending your money with them. Whether you're desperate for an air fryer, want to upgrade your PC setup, or go all-in on a whole new machine, the Black Friday sales event is a great time to bag a bargain.
There are simply too many deals on the internet nowadays to sift through them yourself, that's our job. But don't worry, we're not going to start peddling air fryers, or mattresses, or anything that doesn't have anything to do with PC gaming. That's what we know, and we're making sure to channel our years of expertise into making sure you know what the best deals are and don't have to go trawling though pages of not-actually-deals on Amazon, eBay, Mwave or elsewhere.
Where were the best Black Friday PC gaming deals?
- Amazon - deals on anything from RTX 3060 gaming laptops to 4K screens
- Dell - save big on Alienware and Dell PCs and monitors
- MSI - Great deals on MSI laptops plus bonus Black Friday hardware and accessories
- Lenovo - savings on Legion gaming laptops and desktops
- Razer - save on Razer gaming laptops
- Microsoft - save on Surface, Xbox, Razer and more
- Secretlab - save up to AU$330 on some of the best gaming chairs
- Mwave - bargains across gaming PCs, hardware and peripherals
- Green Man Gaming - big discounts on PC games
- HP - Black Friday offerings on gaming laptops, PCs and more
Cyber Monday highlights
Black Friday is over! But Cyber Monday is now upon us. As a result, we're collecting the best Cyber Monday PC gaming deals, rather than Black Friday ones. You can find some highlights below.
When is Black Friday 2023 in Australia?
Black Friday 2022 is on Friday, November 24 this year and will effectively last through until Cyber Monday on November 27.
Though, in reality, Black Friday is now a month-long event running pretty much throughout the entirety of November.
What deals can I expect on Black Friday 2023?
We're so far into the current generation of both graphics cards and gaming laptops that, while you might see some last-gen GPUs in some discounted rigs, they're going to have to be seriously cheap to warrant picking over similarly priced current-gen systems.
But, because we are deep into this generation, and all the main cards have been dealt, there will be deals going down for the latest and greatest PC gaming tech. And that's pretty exciting. You can bet there will be a number of RTX 4060 gaming laptops and PCs going for less than AU$2,000 and that will be a great price for an entry level gaming system for sure.
Intel will have launched its new desktop processors by Black Friday, and while we won't see any 14th Gen discounts, I wouldn't be surprised to see Intel's 12th and 13th Gen chips up for sale. And I'm positive AMD's Zen 4 range is going to see some deep cuts this year.
There's been a serious price correction on memory over the last year and so DDR5 is now affordable so putting together a great gaming PC build is within your grasp this year. There has also been a glut of great SSDs deals, too with price drops so ludicrous you'd also be silly not picking up a 1TB drive, even as a spare. Maybe even a 2TB SSD.
Screens are another regularly discounted commodity around Black Friday, and we doubt this year will be any different. This means both the best gaming monitors and the best TVs for gaming could get some tasty deals, too.
And there will always be gaming mice and keyboards on sale come Black Friday too, so they're worth taking a look at. It's a great time of year to treat your butt to a quality gaming chair as well, which tend to enjoy some healthy price cuts this time of year.
Should you wait to buy until Black Friday?
There are always reasons to hold off on making a new purchase whenever you are thinking about making one. Whether it's the potential for a new generation of techie goodness on the horizon—either cutting prices on existing models or delivering tangible higher performance—or because there might be an imminent sale like Black Friday looming.
When picking out the early Black Friday PC gaming deals we take all of this into consideration, and where we think prices on something might significantly drop on the big day itself we simply won't recommend it. But all of the products here we either believe won't significantly drop much further in terms of their pricing, or are just good deals that we wouldn't hesitate recommending if you wanted to make a purchase today.
What should I avoid buying on Black Friday 2023?
Anything you don't need. It's distressingly easy to be duped into dropping cash on something just because there's a hefty discount attached to it… even though you have absolutely no use for it.
If you're considering making a purchase around Black Friday, have a plan of attack. That probably sounds needlessly aggressive, but you need to know what you actually want to buy first or you'll end up with no end of crap. Cheap crap, maybe, but crap nonetheless.
Do some research on the products you'd like to pick up in the sales (we offer detailed hardware buying guides), and maybe some alternatives in case those don't pop up. Set yourself a strict budget too.
Products like graphics cards and processors have obvious tiers (though the different companies work damned hard to make product names as confusing as possible), and SSDs have rated speeds, but for peripherals, it's tougher to tell from the specs whether they're worth the money. Checking for reviews, from such luminaries as ourselves, should guide you on your way.
Are there any Black Friday tips and tricks?
If you haven't already used it up during a credit card splurge around Amazon Prime Day, then you ought to take the opportunity to sign up for a free 30-day trial of Amazon Prime. That will get you early access to the Lightning Deals, and help you grab some of Jeff's best deals of the day. It will also net you free shipping on a host of products and speedy delivery too, and at the very worst it'll be handy when it comes to bagging some last-minute Christmas gifts for that aunt you always forget about.