The Prime Day Categories Most Likely to Deliver the Best Deals

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Every year, Amazon drops tens of thousands of deals during Prime Day and most of them aren’t worth your time. Filtering out what’s good from what’s just meh on your own is not even possible. But when looking at last years deals, there are some trends surfacing that can help you this year.

We looked at 2,000+ Amazon deals shared on Slickdeals during Prime Day 2025 and measured two things: how the community scored each deal (a signal of genuine quality) and what percentage of people who saw the deal clicked through to Amazon (a signal of real purchase intent). The categories below scored highest on both. If you’re building a Prime Day shopping strategy, start here.

Video Games

No category earned a higher average deal score than video games during Prime Day 2025. The deals were few (just six made it to Slickdeals) but when they landed, the community responded decisively.

The biggest deal of the entire category was the Nintendo Switch 2, which went for $450 and drove more community engagement than almost anything else during the event. It was invitation-only, which limited who could actually get it, but the demand was undeniable. Beyond hardware, software deals were strong too.

Two deals that stood out in 2025:

• Nintendo Switch 2 Console for $450: Invitation-only, deal score of +269, and 32% of people who saw it clicked through to Amazon.
• Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 (Xbox Series X / PS5) for $34–$35: 51% off, solid deal score, and strong engagement for a niche title.

One Slickdeals user chimed in on why they liked the Switch deal, saying “I do like that we can use all our old Joy-Cons and Pro Controllers to play 4 players without having to purchase additional controllers at this time. Worth $450? No, but I like to be an early adopter.” — skinnywallet42

What to watch for in 2026: First-party Nintendo titles, major AAA games with deep discounts, and any hardware bundles. When a video game deal hits on Slickdeals during Prime Day, the community tends to validate it fast. I recommend checking out the video games category page on Slickdeals during Prime Day to make sure you don’t miss anything.

Kitchen and Bathroom Cleaning Supplies

This is the category most people overlook, and it’s consistently one of the best performing. In 2025 it ranked second in total orders across all categories, with an average deal score of +32. More than one in four people who saw these deals clicked through to Amazon.

The deals tend to be on everyday consumables at prices low enough to justify stocking up. Dawn dish soap and Finish dishwasher products showed up multiple times with deep discounts, and the community rated them highly every time.

Two deals that stood out in 2025:

• 4-Pack 16-oz Dawn Platinum Powerwash Dish Spray for $11.03: 37% off, deal score of +130, and 30% of people who saw this deal clicked through to Amazon.
• 23-oz Finish Jet-Dry 3-in-1 Dishwasher Rinse Aid for $2.84: 74% off, deal score of +102, and 53% of people who saw this deal clicked through to Amazon.

Community insights: “I am stocking up on these. I don’t use them for dishes but to clean air purifier filters and AC condenser units. I spray this on my filter, AC condenser, vents, and rims on my car for about 5 minutes and rinse off with water and it works like magic. No other cleaner worked like this, even with hard scrubbing.” — pun, Slickdeals member (on the Dawn deal)

What to watch for in 2026: Subscribe & Save combinations with Prime Day discounts stack exceptionally well in this category. Watch for anything from Dawn, Finish, Method, or Mr. Clean.

Protein Powder and Shakes

Health and fitness deals have become a legitimate Prime Day category, and protein products in particular showed strong numbers in 2025. Nearly 12,000 orders across 17 deals, with more than one in four people who saw the deals clicking through to Amazon. The community scored these deals well because the discounts were real: most came in at 35 to 55% off with Subscribe & Save stacking on top.

Premier Protein was the breakout brand, appearing in multiple formats and driving strong engagement across all of them.

Two deals that stood out in 2025:

• 6-Count Premier Protein Shakes for $8.07: 53% off with Subscribe & Save, deal score of +89, and 41% of people who saw this deal clicked through to Amazon.
• 12-Count Pure Protein Bars (Chocolate Deluxe) for $10.75: 35% off with Subscribe & Save, deal score of +45, and solid engagement across orders.

Community insights: “I thought the Cafe Latte were ok, plus they have caffeine so I can skip my coffee fix.”— rpm40, Slickdeals member (on the Premier Protein deal). Another user said “Snagged one cafe and one caramel. Been wanting to try these, and at just over $1 per bottle it seemed like the right time.”

What to watch for in 2026: Premier Protein, Quest, and Optimum Nutrition tend to have solid discounts of the year during Prime Day. Sports Research is another brand we’ve seen have a lot of supplement deals on Amazon this year as well. If you use protein products regularly, this is the time to stock up.

Gift Cards

Gift cards during Prime Day are an underutilized strategy. Amazon regularly discounts gift cards to third-party brands (typically 20% off), which is a way to get Prime Day savings on things Amazon doesn’t sell directly, or to pre-load credit for purchases you’re already planning.

In 2025 the category had an average deal score of +33, and more than one in four people who saw these deals clicked through to Amazon.

Two deals that stood out in 2025:

• $100 Lyft Digital Gift Card for $80: 20% off, deal score of +157, and 25% of people who saw this deal clicked through to Amazon.
• 20% Off Select Gift Cards: 20% off, deal score of +85, and 34% of people who saw this deal clicked through to Amazon.

Community insights: “I can confirm that having a balance in your Lyft account does NOT influence pricing. The company has a strong culture of ethics and doing the right thing.”— Dioahcocss, former Lyft employee and Slickdeals member.

What to watch for in 2026: Dining, entertainment, and travel gift cards are the most common. The Lyft deal in 2025 was one of the most-voted deals in the entire category. Ride-share and utility gift cards tend to perform well because the savings are immediate and transferable.

Headphones, Headsets, and Earbuds

Headphones were the category Slickdeals members spent the most money in during Prime Day 2025, and the community consistently surfaces the deals worth buying from the ones worth skipping. More people browse than click in this category, but when a deal earns a strong deal score, it tends to be a genuinely good buy.

One pattern worth noting: two of the top-voted headphone deals in 2025 were “Like New” certified refurbished units, which delivered brand-name quality at significant discounts.

Two deals that stood out in 2025:

• Apple AirPods 4 (Like New) for $64.80: Certified refurb, deal score of +71, and 25% of people who saw this deal clicked through to Amazon.
• Soundcore P30i by Anker Noise-Canceling Earbuds for $23.74: 56% off, deal score of +59, and a strong budget pick.

Community insights: “Figure it’s cheap enough to finally compare these to my trusty AirPods Pro 2’s. If they seem counterfeit, or not near the Pro 2 in quality, I’ll just return.” — KennyS1894, Slickdeals member (on the AirPods 4 deal)

“I have these from a previous sale. Definitely worth it if you need earbuds. I use over-the-ear headphones at home, but keep these in my car as my ‘to go’ pair. Noise cancelling is decent, which is impressive at this price.” — RealDealForReal, Slickdeals member (on the Soundcore P30i deal)

What to watch for in 2026: Apple, Sony, and Anker/Soundcore tend to run their best headphone deals during Prime Day. Certified refurbished units from Amazon Renewed are worth considering. The Like New tier comes with Amazon’s standard return policy and the discounts are often more significant than new-unit deals.

One More Way to Stack Your Savings

If you have the Amazon Prime Visa card, Prime Day adds up to 10% cash back on top of the deal price on all purchases. That’s up to double the standard 5% they usually offer. On higher-ticket items like headphones or gaming gear, that adds up quickly. It also stacks on gift card purchases: one community member noted that ordering the physical Netflix gift card let them earn an additional 7% back through Prime Visa by selecting no-rush shipping at checkout.

How to Use This During Prime Day

These five categories consistently outperformed on both deal quality and purchase intent in 2025. They’re a good starting point for where to focus your attention when Prime Day hits. To see all the best Prime Day deals at any time, I recommend checking out our Prime Day hub.

The most practical approach: set a Deal Alert on Slickdeals for each category before Prime Day starts. You’ll get notified as soon as a deal is posted and scored up by the community, so you’re not refreshing pages manually when inventory is limited.

Prime Day 2026 deals will be posted in real time at slickdeals.net as they go live.