October Prime Day vs. Black Friday: Which Sales Event Has Better Deals?

With October Prime Day 2024 happening next week, you may be looking ahead at all of the upcoming sales events to start planning your holiday shopping. The Amazon sales event originally began as an Amazon exclusive day of deals, but has quickly grown into an industry-wide shopping holiday rivaling even Black Friday. If you're hoping to save some money on TVs, games, or even groceries, October Prime Day is a great time to do so. You can even choose to shop the competing Walmart Sale during the same time.

That being said, is October Prime Day as good as Black Friday in terms of actual discounts? Amazon and likely other major retailers – like Best Buy and Walmart – will be offering major deals on a wide variety of products. With so many different price cuts to look at, we wanted to compare the two shopping holidays to determine which one is better.

October Prime Day Deals vs. Black Friday Deals

The most important comparison we need to consider when looking at the two shopping events are the deals themselves. Both October Prime Day and Black Friday offer steep discounts on big ticket items like Apple Watches, iPads, and 4K TVs during the main sales days, and there isn’t always a clear winner in terms of which sales event has deeper price cuts. With gaming companies like Nintendo already offering Black Friday bundles, there are quite a few big purchases that you can make during either sale.

The main advantage Black Friday has over October Prime Day is how many retailers actually participate. This level of competition results in some incredible deals outside of the main retailers that can net you a really good deal on tech products like gaming consoles and laptops. This generally makes Black Friday a better time to buy those items than Prime Day.

The flip side of that is that October Prime Day is more centralized to Amazon and the other major retailers, making it a great time to buy the brands that these companies own. Amazon Fire TVs, Echo speakers, and Kindle deals are all already on sale with Amazon's early device deals. So if you don’t mind buying Amazon owned brands and already have a Prime membership, you can usually save a ton of money without having to wait for Black Friday.

Product Release Cycles

Another major thing to consider between Black Friday and October Prime Day is that they happen at during different months. That means some product release cycles end up better matching up with Black Friday than Cyber Monday. One of the reasons Black Friday is one of the best times to buy a 4K TV for example is because many of the newer TV models get released in January and retailers are clearing out stock to make room for new products. Some of these deals will be available in October as well, but likely not as many.

Phone release cycles, however, line up very well with both sales events. Apple tends to release their new iPhone models in the fall like we saw with iPhone 16, which results in additional price drops on previous phones. Apple also usually releases a new Apple Watch model, which results in some of the lowest prices on the older models. With the new iPhone 16 and Apple Watch Series 10 now available, Both October Prime Day and Black Friday will likely still be the best times to buy phones and accessories.

Total Number of Sales Days

Another big difference between October Prime Day and Black Friday is the total number of days you have to shop the sale. Although Black Friday used to be a single day of deals, it has become more akin to a whole month of deals in recent years. With the addition of Cyber Monday sales, Black Friday season has a much larger window of savings than any of the Prime Days. October Prime Day has expanded to multiple sale days since it first began, but you still have a much smaller window to peruse savings than you would with Black Friday deals.

What Should You Buy on October Prime Day?

With release cycles in mind, some of the best things to buy on October Prime Day are last year’s models that may go out of stock by Black Friday. That includes things like older phone models and TV deals on brands that are already a couple release cycles ahead. These items are going to have some of the lowest prices available because Amazon and other retailers are going to be working on clearing them out of their warehouses.

The most obvious buys during Prime Day are Amazon’s own devices. Fire TVs, Kindles, and Echo devices, and Ring Doorbells will likely all be at their lowest possible price points. These items will likely also drop down to similar prices during Black Friday, but there’s no reason to wait until then to make a purchase.

If you’re shopping outside of Amazon on Prime Day, it’s also worth looking at gaming PC deals and discounts on GPUs. While Black Friday may have better discounts, the price of PC components has pretty much normalized and it’s a surprisingly good time to upgrade your setup. Prime Day is arguably one of the best times to buy a GPU and an overall good time to buy a gaming PC in 2024.

What Should You Buy on Black Friday?

Black Friday is generally the best time to find deals on everything, but it’s also your best bet to find discounts on newer tech products and gaming consoles. Some of the best OLED TV deals are going to be on Black Friday, and it’s also one of the only times of the year you’ll find Nintendo Switch sales. You can also usually find direct discounts on Xbox Series X consoles as well as PS5 bundles that you won’t find any other time of year. This is especially true with the release of the PS5 Pro in early November.

Outside of gaming consoles, Black Friday is also an excellent time to buy a laptop. Whether you're looking for a good Chromebook or a high-end gaming laptop, November is usually when the major PC manufacturers fight the hardest for your business.

Additionally, some of the very best deals on Black Friday are actually outside of major tech products. This includes clothing, furniture, and outdoor gear that is out of season. You’ll find some of these discounts on Prime Day as well, but they aren’t nearly as prevalent as they are on Black Friday.