Walmart's website crashed almost immediately after it opened orders for the PlayStation 5 on launch day

• The PlayStation 5 launched on Thursday, but it isn't being sold in stores.
• The only way to get a PlayStation 5 at launch is by preordering it. But at least one retailer is selling PS5s digitally on a first-come, first-served basis: Walmart.
• The first drop of PlayStation 5 consoles was at noon ET, and it promptly took down the entire Walmart web store.

After months of anticipation, Sony's new PlayStation 5 launched on Thursday.

Because of the global pandemic, Sony decided not to go the traditional route and isn't selling the new console in stores at launch.

Instead, the only way to get one on Thursday is to have preordered it months ago from one of several retailers. But at least one retailer, Walmart, announced plans for staggered PlayStation 5 supply drops throughout the day.

The first, at noon ET, caused the entire Walmart web store to crash. A technical-error message said simply, "No healthy upstream." It was later replaced by a more user-friendly page explaining that the store was overloaded by too many shoppers at one time.

Similar issues happened in September, when Sony and Microsoft first allowed customers to preorder their respective next-gen game consoles.

It's unclear how many PS5 consoles Walmart sold in its first drop, but it is clear there weren't enough for everyone who wanted one: Despite our own attempts to buy one, Walmart had sold out of consoles in less than five minutes.

Walmart said it would resupply PS5 consoles online at 3, 6, and 9 p.m. ET.

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