How to best track all PC/console game deals and upcoming sales?

Never Miss a Discount: Your Guide to Game Deal Tracking

For avid gamers, finding the perfect game at a discounted price is almost as satisfying as playing it. With countless titles released annually and sales constantly rotating across various platforms, keeping tabs on every potential deal can feel like a full-time job. Thankfully, a multitude of resources and strategies exist to help you snag the best offers for PC and console games. This guide will walk you through the most effective methods to track current deals and anticipate future sales, ensuring your game library grows without breaking the bank.

Dedicated Deal Aggregators and Price Comparison Sites

The first line of defense against paying full price are websites specifically designed to aggregate game deals from numerous storefronts. These platforms often feature price history, wishlists, and email alert systems.

• IsThereAnyDeal (ITAD): A powerhouse for PC game deals, ITAD tracks prices across dozens of digital storefronts (Steam, Epic Games Store, GOG, Humble Store, Fanatical, etc.). You can create a wishlist, set price alerts, and view historical low prices, helping you determine if a current deal is truly a bargain.
• CheapShark: Similar to ITAD, CheapShark focuses on PC game deals, providing price comparison and alerts. It’s known for its clean interface and comprehensive coverage.
• DekuDeals (for Nintendo): For Nintendo Switch, 3DS, and Wii U titles, DekuDeals is an indispensable resource. It tracks eShop sales, physical game prices, and even compares prices across major retailers like Amazon and Best Buy.
• PSPrices/Xbox Deals: While not as feature-rich as ITAD for PC, these sites provide excellent summaries of current PlayStation Store and Xbox Store sales, including price history.

By leveraging these aggregators, you can quickly see the best available price for a game across multiple vendors and set up notifications for when it hits your desired price point.

Platform-Specific Sales Events and Wishlists

Every major digital storefront hosts regular sales events, often with significant discounts. Knowing when these typically occur can help you plan your purchases.

• Steam Sales: Valve’s Steam platform is famous for its seasonal mega-sales (Summer, Winter, Spring, Autumn) offering discounts on thousands of titles. Smaller themed sales also occur regularly. Always add games to your Steam wishlist; you’ll receive email notifications when items on it go on sale.
• Epic Games Store: Known for its weekly free games and major sales (like the Mega Sale), the Epic Games Store is a must-watch. Like Steam, utilize their wishlist feature for sale notifications.
• PlayStation Store/Xbox Store: Both Sony and Microsoft regularly update their digital storefronts with weekly deals, publisher sales, and seasonal events. Checking their respective ‘Deals’ or ‘Sales’ sections regularly, or using platform-specific apps, is crucial.
• Nintendo eShop: While less frequent than PC sales, the eShop has regular ‘publisher sales’ and occasional ‘Blockbuster’ or ‘Seasonal’ events. DekuDeals is especially useful here.

Don’t underestimate the power of a well-maintained wishlist on your preferred platforms. It’s often the simplest way to get direct notifications about price drops.

Community-Driven Deal Tracking and Social Media

Sometimes, the best deals are first discovered and shared by fellow gamers. Online communities and social media are excellent resources for real-time updates.

• Reddit Communities: Subreddits like r/GameDeals are incredibly active, with users posting deals as soon as they go live. It’s an excellent place to find flash sales, bundle deals, and even free game promotions that might not appear on aggregators immediately. There are also platform-specific subreddits (e.g., r/PS4Deals, r/XboxDeals, r/NintendoSwitchDeals).
• Discord Servers: Many gaming communities and specific deal-tracking websites host Discord servers where deal alerts are posted in dedicated channels. Joining a few relevant servers can keep you instantly informed.
• Twitter: Follow deal aggregator accounts, major publishers, and even specific game developers. Many will tweet about sales and promotions as they happen.

These community-driven platforms offer a more dynamic and immediate way to catch time-sensitive offers.

Browser Extensions and Mobile Apps

Integrate deal tracking directly into your browsing experience with helpful extensions and apps.

• Enhanced Steam / Augmented Steam: These browser extensions add significant functionality to the Steam store page, including price history graphs from IsThereAnyDeal, metacritic scores, and more, making it easier to evaluate a deal.
• Honey / Rakuten: While not game-specific, these extensions automatically find and apply coupon codes at checkout on various online stores, which can sometimes include game retailers.
• Mobile Apps: Many deal aggregator websites offer companion mobile apps, allowing you to receive push notifications for wishlisted games on the go.

These tools streamline the deal-hunting process, bringing information to you rather than requiring constant manual checking.

Email Newsletters and Bundles

Don’t overlook the humble email newsletter for staying informed, and keep an eye out for game bundles.

• Sign Up for Newsletters: Subscribe to newsletters from your favorite digital storefronts (Steam, Epic, GOG), game publishers, and deal aggregators. These often contain summaries of current sales and upcoming promotions.
• Game Bundles: Sites like Humble Bundle and Fanatical regularly offer curated collections of games at deep discounts, often with a portion going to charity. These are fantastic for expanding your library with multiple titles at once.

Conclusion: A Smarter Approach to Gaming Purchases

By combining these strategies – utilizing deal aggregators, maintaining platform wishlists, engaging with gaming communities, using browser extensions, and signing up for newsletters – you can create a robust system for tracking game deals and upcoming sales. This proactive approach ensures you’re always informed about the best prices, allowing you to expand your game collection intelligently and enjoy more gaming for less.