Three numbers from EB Games Canada's Black Friday 2025 sale, which ran November 21 to 30, describe where gaming money was actually saved last year: games discounted by up to 65 per cent, a PS5 bundle carrying a $130 saving, and DualSense controllers at $69.99 against a regular $94.99 — a $25 difference. Consoles on their own barely feature. That pattern is the whole strategy for 2026 in one paragraph: wait hardest for games and accessories, expect bundles to carry the console value, and treat any bare console price cut as a pleasant surprise rather than a plan.
Black Friday 2026 falls on Friday, November 27, and most console offers are expected to start about a week earlier, following the 2025 pattern. Everything below is priced in Canadian dollars. The 2025 flyer prices are labelled as 2025 prices throughout, and the current listings were checked on October 25, 2026 — prices move, so each figure carries its date with it.
The comparison up top: category against category
| Category | Dated evidence | Wait or buy? |
|---|---|---|
| Games | Up to 65% off at EB Games Canada, Black Friday 2025 (Nov 21–30); Astro Bot (PS5) listed at $49.00 against a $79.99 list price on Amazon.ca, checked October 25, 2026 | Wait — the deepest verified percentages live here |
| Console bundles | PS5 Fortnite Flowering Chaos Bundle: $449.99 digital and $579.99 disc at EB Games Canada in 2025, a $130 saving | Wait for a bundle at or below the 2025 floor |
| Bare consoles | In 2025 Sony took $100 off PS5 Pro, while Microsoft's own store did not cut console prices at all | Do not build a plan around a bare-console cut |
| Controllers | DualSense at $69.99, regularly $94.99, EB Games Canada 2025 | Wait — a repeat-pattern discount worth holding out for |
| Current hardware at list | Nintendo Switch 2 + Mario Kart World Bundle listed at $699.96 on Amazon.ca, checked October 25, 2026 | That is a pre-sale listing, not a deal — judge any November price against it |
Read the table as a ranking, not a shopping list. Games first, bundles second, accessories third, bare consoles last.
Consoles: the bundle is the deal, not the box
After console price increases during 2026, the best savings are expected to land on bundles, controllers, headsets, and games rather than on big console price cuts. The 2025 record supports that caution. Sony's $100 reduction on the PS5 Pro was the exception; Microsoft's own store holding console prices steady was closer to the rule. A shopper waiting for a dramatic cut on a bare console is waiting for the category least likely to deliver one.
Bundles work differently. The PS5 Fortnite Flowering Chaos Bundle at EB Games Canada last year — $449.99 for the digital edition and $579.99 for the disc edition, with a stated $130 saving — shows where retailers prefer to put the value: in the package, not the hardware sticker. A bundle only counts as a saving, though, when the packed-in extras are things the buyer actually wants. A bundle stuffed with a game nobody in the house will play is a higher price wearing a discount costume.
The Nintendo Switch 2 + Mario Kart World Bundle listing seen on Amazon.ca at $699.96, checked October 25, 2026, sets a useful reference point before the sales begin. It is not a Black Friday price. Any November offer on that bundle has to come in clearly under $699.96 — and stay in stock long enough to buy — before it earns the word "deal."
Games: the category where waiting pays most
Games carried the headline percentage last year for a reason: up to 65 per cent off across EB Games Canada's Black Friday 2025 range is a depth of discount console hardware simply did not match. Digital and physical game prices can be cut without a retailer swallowing a loss on expensive hardware, so the sale energy concentrates here.
A current listing shows the shape of a credible game deal. Astro Bot for PS5 was listed on Amazon.ca at $49.00 against a $79.99 list price, checked October 25, 2026 — a $30.99 difference by simple subtraction. That is the standard to hold November offers to: a named game, a real list price beside it, and a gap wide enough to matter. A "sale" price within a few dollars of what a game already sells for in late October is shelf dressing, not a Black Friday deal.
Practical move: build a short list of specific titles now, note the late-October price for each, and buy in November only when the price drops well clear of that note. A percentage banner without a title-by-title comparison proves nothing.
Controllers and accessories: quiet percentages, real money
Accessories rarely lead a flyer, yet the DualSense example is tidy: $69.99 during EB Games Canada's 2025 sale against a regular $94.99. Nobody writes home about $25, but a household that needs a second controller, or a replacement for one with a drifting stick, saves real money by timing a purchase it was going to make anyway.
The same logic covers headsets, which sit in the group expected to carry 2026's better savings alongside bundles and games. No dated Canadian headset price is in hand here, so no figure gets invented for one — the category earns a place on a watch list, not a made-up discount. When November flyers land, compare each accessory against its regular price in writing, the way the DualSense's $94.99 regular price makes its $69.99 sale price verifiable.
VR hardware shows the pattern too. A Meta Quest 3S 128 GB bundle was listed on Amazon.ca at $329.96, down from $399.96, checked October 25, 2026 — a $70 difference. Bundled hardware with extras included keeps showing up as the vehicle for the discount, across brands.
What not to wait for
Do not wait for a large cut on a bare console; 2025 gave one $100 exception on a premium model and a flat refusal from Microsoft's own store. Do not wait for a specific accessory price that has only ever appeared in a US flyer — Canadian shelves run their own numbers, as every dated price here shows. And do not wait past need: a broken controller in a house that plays daily has a cost in lost use that a $25 saving may not repay. Waiting is a tool for planned purchases, not a tax on broken ones.
The decision framework, and the dated floor
Sort every gaming purchase into one of three buckets before November 27:
- Wait for Black Friday. Games on a wish list, a second or replacement controller, headsets, and any console that can be bought as a bundle. The dated evidence says these categories discount.
- Buy only below the floor. A 2026 offer counts only if it beats the comparable dated price: under $449.99 for a digital PS5 bundle comparable to last year's, under $69.99 for a DualSense, under $699.96 for the Switch 2 Mario Kart World bundle, or a clearly wider gap than $49.00 against a $79.99 list on a featured game. Matching last year's price is not a 2026 deal — it is last year's deal, a year late.
- Buy now, without guilt. A bare console wanted at its current price, or gear replacing something broken and in daily use. The evidence offers no strong discount to wait for in either case.
Keep the dates attached to the numbers when comparing flyers in November. A price without a date is how last year's $449.99 bundle gets recycled as this year's excitement — and spotting that recycling is worth more than any single discount on the list.
Money note: this article is general information, not financial advice. All prices are Canadian dollars and dated — 2025 flyer prices are last year's reference points, and the current listings were checked on October 25, 2026. Verify every price with the retailer before buying.