Although video games provide some of the best value-per-dollar for entertainment, gaming can be an expensive hobby. Those purchases add up, and it’s easy to spend upwards of $1,000 in a year.
Fortunately, if your budget is tight, you have ways to cut back. First and foremost, stop pre-ordering games. You could even take it one step further and avoid buying new games altogether.
However, the best idea of all is to wait for deals! You’ll need some patience, and you won’t always get to play the games you want right away, but video game deals can save you lots of money.
With that in mind, here are the best sites to buy video games.
1. Is There Any Deal
Is There Any Deal is a deal comparison site for video games. It not only aggregates pretty much every video game deal currently available, but lists them all side-by-side and ranks them by how much you can save. Just search for the game you want, then view all of the deals on its page.
Other nifty features include:
- Wait for a better price: Set a price point and get alerted when the price drops below it.
- Price history: See if the game’s current price really is a deal or not.
- Trends: See how quickly the game has sold.
If price is your only criterion, then this site is what you need. But Is There Any Deal also lists stores selling the game without deals. This allows you to use the site as a “where can I buy this game?” tool, regardless of deals.
2. CheapShark
CheapShark only aggregates video game prices from a dozen or so online retailers, but lets you search for any game and gives you a quick comparison of what it costs at each one.
Two features you’ll find useful: “Cheapest ever” shows a game’s lowest price ever and when that price occurred. “Price notifications” lets you set a price point and receive an alert when the game drops below it at any of the tracked retailers.
CheapShark’s deals listing page has an interesting sorting measure called “Deal Rating.” It considers various factors (e.g. absolute price, percent off, Metascore, release date) to determine how good the deal is. Very nifty at a glance!
3. Humble Bundle
The Humble Bundle started in 2010 as a discounted collection of video games with some proceeds donated to charity. Its first few bundles consisted of mainly indie games, but it has since evolved to include AAA titles and other more desirable games.
Humble Bundles are known for the “pay what you want” approach, which means you can grab lots of games for very cheap. However, in every Bundle, some of the most desirable titles are only available if you spend a minimum amount.
You can also browse the Humble Store for regular sales. Either way, these two options comprise some of the best ways to save money when gaming.
4. Fanatical
Fanatical is an online games store that always has deep discounts on the latest and greatest games. It not only sells PC games for Steam, but also Switch and 3DS games—which is rather unique, since Nintendo games are rarely discounted.
While the prices on Fanatical are usually great anyway, the site often holds sales or flash deals where you can get even cheaper prices than usual. You should also check out its bundles, where similar games are packaged together for a discount rate.
5. Slickdeals
Slickdeals is one of the best sites for daily deals, period. Users post deals whenever they spot them around the web, receive them in emails, etc. And since deals are available across many other departments (e.g. home, tech, travel), Slickdeals is a great choice if you want an all-in-one deals site.
After using Slickdeals for a while, you’ll see why it’s one of the best bargain sites cheaper than eBay. Lots of people use it, which means any deal is likely to pop up there.
6. Daily Game Deals
Daily Game Deals may not have the easy browsability other deal sites, but it functions perfectly as a “check once per day” kind of site. It’s a blog that publishes once per day, with each post covering a massive roundup of new gaming-related deals around the web.
Most of the deals come from the same retailers, including Amazon, Newegg, Gamefly, Gamestop, Walmart, etc. For truly effortless notifications, just sign up for the daily newsletter and get the deals sent straight to your inbox.
7. Reddit’s /r/GameDeals and /r/ConsoleDeals
These two communities on Reddit are fantastic for catching deals fast and early. While /r/GameDeals is technically for all game deals, it does have a heavy slant towards PC gamers. That’s why /r/ConsoleDeals was born.
While PC games are usually cheaper than console games, the beauty is that you can play whichever you want and still benefit from the deals subreddit that applies to you. These deals aggregators are two of the best you’ll find.
And while you’re on Reddit, you may as well check out /r/patientgamers. It’s a community of gamers who wait at least six months after a game is released before buying it, which often results in super savings thanks to things like Black Friday sales.
8. Cheap Ass Gamer
Cheap Ass Gamer is run by a small team who constantly post the latest game deals they find on the internet. The site covers all platforms and you can filter to specific ones you want to see.
It also has a handy price tracker, so you can see the historical price of a game and know whether the current deal really is that great. If you don’t want to check the site, you can also subscribe to its Twitter feed instead.
9. Gocdkeys
Gocdkeys compares the cost of keys for games on PC, PS4, and Xbox One. It not only scans the usual retailers like Amazon and GoG, but also lots of lesser-known sites too—across many regions too.
The site also displays reviews for all of its retailers, so you can compare price and trustworthiness side by side. As such, you can be confident knowing that you’re getting a great deal on the game you want to buy.
Be careful to only buy from legit and safe key sites. To help you stay safe, here’s what to know before buying discounted game keys.
10. DLCompare
You might be willing to play a game on multiple platforms, especially if you own a gaming PC and a console. If so, DLCompare is the site for you, because it compares a game’s price across all the platforms.
This means that you can easily see whether it would be cheaper to buy the game on PS4 rather than Xbox One, for example. Of course, you can also filter if needs be, either by platform, store, or type of game (like “standard edition” or “season pass”).
How to Decide What Game to Buy
These sites are sure to net you a great bargain on the next game that you want to play. Many of them let you sign up for email alerts and newsletters, so be sure to do that so you don’t miss out on a bargain.
If you can’t decide what titles you want to play, check out our advice listing ways to decide what game to buy next.
Image Credit: SergPoznanskiy/Depositphotos
Read the full article: The Top 10 Sites for Video Game Deals and Bargains
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