Amazon Prime Day 2023: what to expect

You know what Amazon Prime Day is, right? It’s an annual two-day deals event held exclusively for Prime subscribers. In 2023 it will take place from Tuesday 11 July to 12 June. Prime Day is a big event as it’s one of the few opportunities outside of Black Friday to score huge price cuts. This is also notable because Amazon’s massive influence is causing retailers like Best Buy, Target, Walmart, and many other online stores to lower their prices as well.

If you have something (or many things) on your wish list or gift list, pay attention to Prime Day. But what discounts can you expect during the big sale without knowing the deals in advance? I’m going to give you some important pointers without telling you what discounts are given.

First thing: subscribe

First-time Amazon Prime members can try the subscription for free for 30 days, valid throughout Prime Day and beyond. For everyone else, the service costs $14.99 per month or $139 if you choose to pay annually. Not only are they your golden ticket to access Prime Day deals, they also get fast shipping, Prime Video content and more.

Table and board games will be cheaper

If you’ve checked out our post on the best board games, or follow my colleague Charlie Hall’s tabletop coverage frequently, chances are some of these products will be available at a cheaper price during Prime Day. A few discounted board games are a great way to add some summer time activities for family and friends.

It will be a good time to get some gaming accessories

What do I mean by gaming accessories? Well, everything. You can expect discounts on gaming controllers, fast SSDs for PS5 and PC, microSD cards for Nintendo Switch, Steam Deck and Asus ROG Ally and much more – basically everything you need to outfit your gaming setup is discounted. I also expect the deals to extend to some popular gaming monitors, keyboards, laptops, headsets, and other peripherals. We will of course tell you all about it once July 11th comes around.

Get video games, movies and box sets

Prime Day is a great time to be a gamer or a fan of movies, anime and other types of entertainment. Expect huge discounts on all of the above, so you can add even more stuff to your backlog. There might even be some pre-order deals.

Prime subscribers can already get free games and DLC

In June and July Amazon gave away games and DLC for those who sign up and claim the goodies. So far, Arkane Studios’ prey And Baldur’s Gate 2: Enhanced Edition are some of the highlights, but there are more. Overwatch 2 Some players can skip 5 tiers with their Battle Pass COD: Warzone cosmetics and more.

Other retailers will cause a stir

As I already mentioned, Goal, best buy, Walmart, Newegg, and many other retailers will sort of join Prime Day by launching their own deal events. Over the past few years, retailers have been getting better at matching, and in some cases even surpassing, Amazon’s price cuts. As such, it’s definitely worth shopping off of Amazon if you’re not seeing the price drops you want.

Image: Amazon

Some offers are already available

Amazon’s growing list of deals for early Prime Day 2023 is decent, but they’re not rattling the world. This is intentional; The company has its big guns ready for July 11th and 12th. Still, I recommend you check these out ahead of Prime Day as we add new deals to this post.

You can track deals yourself if you want

Trust me when I say Polygon makes the effort to find the exact deals on products we like and know you’ll like too. When you wake up on July 11th and visit our website, you will be greeted with more offers than you know what to do with. However, if you’re looking to have minimal Prime Day involvement or are picky about pricing, we recommend checking out the deals for yourself. Luckily we have a post full of tips and tools that we love to use.