All eyes in the United States were set on Black Friday. But, on the other side of the pond, consumers were also lining up well before midnight to get in on the shopping action -- for the midnight launch of the Sony (NYSE:SNE) PlayStation 4.

While the US got a head start with the PS4 release on Nov. 15, Europe was left waiting until Nov. 29, oddly coinciding with the hordes of Black Friday shoppers back in the US. While Europeans continued to wait for the PS4, Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) stepped in to fill the brief void with the Nov. 22 launch of the Xbox One in the UK, France, Spain, Germany, Italy, Austria and other countries.

Despite this brief gap between PlayStation 4 launches, European PS4 fans were clearly just as excited as their American counterparts, who were looking to add to their PS4 collections on Black Friday.

Hordes of shoppers lined up across Europe to get their hands on the next-gen PS4. While some of the PS4 lines were long, but orderly and peaceful, some took on the American Black Friday spirit.

One such video clearly shows the chaos that ensued at a Media Markt in Innsbruck, Austria. Unlike the orderly ticket and queue system that typically happens for most system launches, consumers were left to make a mad dash for the PS4 units that were stored at the end cap of a Media Markt aisle. Hordes of shoppers are seen in the video storming the stack of PlayStation 4 units, which appeared to be picked clean in a matter of seconds.

What was your experience with the European launch of the Sony PS4? Let us know in the comments.

For Americans still looking to purchase the Sony PlayStation 4, IBTimes has also compiled a list of retailers that may have the PS4 or Xbox One in stock.

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