PS5 restocks at Amazon and immediately sells out, as customers turn to Argos and other retailers for hope

(Getty Images)

Stock of the PlayStation 5 has arrived at Amazon – and immediately gone again.

Fans are now turning their hopes to expected restocks at Argos and other retailers.

Rumours suggest that many of the big stores will be replenishing their online stock this week. Most of them – including Argos – offer the ability to sign up for email alerts about stock, though there is no guarantee they will arrive before they have sold out, and the new stock tends to arrive at particularly unsociable hours of the day.

Stock tracking websites suggested that Argos and Very were both planning to offer the consoles in the coming days – though such rumours are not always correct, and often relate to very limited numbers of consoles even when they are.

Customers have been largely unable to buy the new console since its released in November, amid high demand and problems with automated systems snapping up any stock so that it can be sold on at increased prices.

The console arrived at Amazon on Tuesday morning, just after 9am. Even customers who clicked through straight away saw that the console was either out of stock or that the website was not able to load as normal at all.

Customers saw a standard error message indicating that there had been a problem “when we tried to process your request” and that their order will not have been placed.

Others said could see the console as if it was in stock – but pressing to add it to the basket brought up an error indicating that doing so had “failed”.

Some users did however report that they had successfully bought consoles from Amazon, and that they were due to arrive on Wednesday.

The difficulties getting hold of the console have led to widespread frustration among fans, who are forced to wait for vague rumours of restocks and stay up through the night in order to maximise their chance of getting hold of one.

It has also led to vilification of the resellers who use automated systems or bots to buy the consoles and then sell them on the grey market at high prices. Some MPs have suggested that reselling should be banned entirely, and a petition urging action on the Parliament website has received some 13,000 signatures.