Cast your mind back just a few months, and you'll be reminded of what I like to to think of as one of the lowest points of modern man. Back in the early days of the pandemic, when nobody was really sure what was going to happen or what restrictions might be imposed upon us, there was a great panic as people headed to stores buy as many necessities as they could carry - and often far more than they needed.
Supermarkets resembled the opening hours of a low-budget zombie film. Row after row of empty shelves, eerily lacking the likes of pasta, flour, and various tinned goods. These items briefly became worth their weight in gold, as did hand sanitiser.
But perhaps most perplexing of all was that people were bulk-buying toilet paper. Loo roll became such a scarce commodity around my neck of the woods that we actually had to start ordering it online for much more than it was actually worth. It was a disappointing time that really brought out the worst in people. People with clean bums, yes, but blackened hearts.
Fast forward several months and a a few thousand rolls of toilet paper, and the warm-hearted chums of humanity are out in force again. The PlayStation 5, while very different to the thin paper used to discretely perform your ablutions, is the hot item of the day, and scalpers are at it again creating demand and jacking up the price.
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As it turns out, however, the people are a lot more interested in getting a PS5 than they ever were in grabbing toilet paper. According to Google, more people used the search engine to as "where to buy PS5" than "where to buy toilet paper" this year. And here I was thinking loo roll would remain the hot-ticket item of 2020.
Yep, Google's top searches for 2020 are a real testament to the PS5's unprecedented demand. The console has been out less than a month, but it's already more sought-after than toilet paper, face masks, and hand sanitiser. The Xbox Series X has been pretty popular too, mind you. Not as popular as toilet paper, obviously, but moreso than hand sanitiser. That's a win for Microsoft I think.
Featured Image Credit: Sony/Comedy CentralTopics: PlayStation 5, Xbox, GAMING, News, Microsoft