Amazon held its first Prime Day event in 2015. The inaugural sale took place on July 15, 2015, as part of Amazon’s 20th-anniversary celebrations. It was designed as a members-only promotion for Amazon Prime subscribers, combining limited-time discounts with the urgency of a one-day online event.
Amazon initially promoted Prime Day as offering more deals than Black Friday. The event attracted substantial attention, although early reactions were mixed because many of the most visible discounts applied to less popular or overstocked products. Some shoppers jokingly compared the sale to a digital yard sale, while competitors such as Walmart criticized the membership requirement.
Amazon said that the first Prime Day generated more orders than its Black Friday event in 2014. The promotion became an annual tradition and later expanded beyond a single day, with events commonly running for 48 hours or more. A frequent mix-up is confusing Prime Day’s launch year with Amazon Prime itself, which began in 2005.