I’ve been testing video games for 11 years, but I’ve been playing them for much longer. When I was in high school and college, buying every new release that caught my eye seemed like a good idea. After all, $60 every few months didn’t seem like much when I had a part-time job and all my other expenses were taken care of.

But, as most readers can attest, adulthood is coming to us fast and hard. Suddenly I needed things like “a place to live” and “food” more than I needed video games. If I wanted to be smart with my finances, day one game releases had to be an occasional treat rather than a monthly necessity.

Over the years, I have developed a system for saving money on video games, based on two simple principles:

1. Don’t buy games on day one

2. Monitor game sales

That’s it. There is no special trick for this; it’s just a matter of being patient and checking your email from time to time. (My apologies to readers who have come to this article looking for some kind of miraculous method of getting cheap games. I wish there was one!) The first point requires discipline; the second just requires a bit of configuration.

While there’s something to be said for buying new builds as soon as they’re released, it’s also not strictly necessary. The solo titles will be the same in a few months as they are now; Multiplayer titles tend to go through “seasons” of content that give new players a fair chance to make a name for themselves.

Whether you’re looking for video games on the best PS5 games, the best Xbox Series X games, the best Nintendo Switch games, or the best PC games, here’s how you can save money without going gameless in the process.

The waiting game

A wise man once said that “waiting is the hardest part”. For the purposes of this article, it is. It’s no secret that video games, like most other consumer electronics, drop in price after a while. There is no specific timeline for each game, and quality and popularity seem to play a big part. Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, for example, went on sale before release, and that game sold millions of copies and was extremely well-reviewed.

Generally speaking, though, you can expect a game to do a slight sell-off a few months after release, and a more permanent price drop after about a year. How long you want to wait depends entirely on how much you want to spend. For example, the excellent Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart debuted last year at $70. It’s currently $50 on Amazon. That’s almost a 30% drop, but $50 is still a big chunk of change. “How much is a game worth” is a separate conversation, however, and readers will have to decide that for themselves.

Generally speaking, if you’re not going to buy a game on launch day, you have a huge resource on your side: reviewers. By reading reviews (including Tom’s Guide, of course), you can determine if a game is worth it and how much you’d be willing to spend. Once you have a general figure in mind, it’s time to check out some price tracking websites.

The internet has incredible resources for tracking video game prices, and if you’re looking for a sale, you definitely need to do your research before you pull the trigger. Let’s go back to the example of Ratchet & Clank. If you’ve seen the game on sale for $60, you might think a $10 discount seems pretty solid. But a price tracking website would let you see that it’s already sold for as little as $50. If a game got a big discount in the past, chances are it will get that big discount again.

Here are price tracking websites for different retailers. This is not an exhaustive list:

Many of these sites offer email alerts when game prices drop. And since digital video games don’t have the same scarcity issues as physical consoles, you don’t need to monitor your emails 24/7. Most sales last a few days, so you’ll have plenty of time to buy your game – or wait for a bigger discount.

However, there is a more direct way to track game prices. To get started, all you have to do is make a list of the games you want.

Wishlists and Notifications

You’ll be happy to know that saving money on games starts with a fun exercise. First, make a list of all the games you want to play in the near future. It can be upcoming games, classic games – anything. If there’s a good chance you’ll actually play the game in the next year, put it on a list and figure out what platform you want to play it on, if any.

(I would recommend limiting this list to 10 or 15 games. If you buy a ton of cheap games, it’s not that different financially than buying a few games at full price.)

Now all you have to do is go to your platform of choice and add it to a wishlist. This process varies slightly depending on your platform.

On PS4 and PS5you will pass by PlayStation Store. Find the game you want, then look for a heart icon next to the “Add to cart” option. You can view your wishlist at any time by clicking the heart icon next to your profile icon. On your wishlist, you will also be able to adjust the “push notifications for wishlist updates” options. Now the PSN Store will notify you whenever one of your desired games goes on sale.

On Xbox One, Xbox series X and Xbox series Ssearch for the game you want in the Microsoft Store, then click the heart icon next to the price of the game. This will add the game to your wishlist, which you can view under “Lists” and “Wishlist” in the Microsoft Store main menu. The console will notify you whenever one of your wishlist games goes on sale.

On nintendo switch, open the Online Store, then search for the game you want. Click the heart icon next to the price, which will add the title to your wishlist. You can view your wishlist from the main eShop menu. However, receiving notifications seems to be a little trickier. It looks like Nintendo will only send you wishlist updates if you agree to accept promotional emails (this can be found in the “Other settings” menu of your profile.)

On computer, receiving wishlist notifications depends on how you purchase games. For the love of discussion, let’s go with it Steam, but the process is quite similar on other platforms. Open Steam, then search for the game you want. Click “Add to Wishlist” below the screenshots panel, then click “Wishlist” just below your profile picture. To receive an email about discounts, go to your profile, then to account details, contact information and manage email preferences. “Email me when a discount is applied to an item in my wishlist” is an option you can toggle. (You can also check out our list of the best Steam games.)

A Word About Subscription Services

It’s worth taking a moment to touch on game subscription services, such as Xbox Game Pass and the soon-to-be-revamped PlayStation Plus. From a certain point of view, you can, indeed, save a lot of money with these services. The Xbox Game Pass, for example, offers over 400 games and costs $15 per month. Buying the over 400 pay-per-view games would cost way more than that.

On the other hand, $15 a month adds up indefinitely over time. The subscription for a single year costs $180, and the second you cancel your subscription, your game library essentially disappears. A savvy bargain hunter could potentially get a year’s worth of games for less money than that, and the games wouldn’t have an expiration date. Still, subscriptions are worth considering if you’d rather sample dozens of titles than dive deep into a few. Also, check out our thoughts on the best Xbox Game Pass games.

What to do while waiting?

Admittedly, not buying games at full price has a huge downside: you can’t play exactly what you want, when you want. However, I have found it can be beneficial as it provides a great opportunity to work on my backlog. I’m sure every gamer has an ever-growing list of titles they’ll “someday get”. Well, if you can’t buy every new release as soon as it’s released, today is “one day”.

On the other hand, waiting for games to go on sale is not a moral statement; it’s just a financial choice. You don’t get any special rewards for buying all of your games at a discount, and you don’t lose anything (except money) by buying them at full price. As such, if there’s a game you desperately want to play, my advice is to go ahead and buy it as soon as you can. The trick is to figure out which games you absolutely need right away and which ones can wait a few months.