Thanksgiving brought a huge crowd, with most people substituted turkey for a discount. Every year companies review their competitive market and how consumers are changing their shopping habits, what other retailers are doing and what methods they are espousing.

More than a dozen major retailers from Target to Staples opened on Thanksgiving. The Thanksgiving openings come despite planned protests across the country from workers’ groups that are against employees missing Thanksgiving meals and spending time with their beloved ones at home. In the past few years, many retailers were warming to the idea of opening on Thanksgiving night as they have now pushed up discounts that were reserved for Black Friday into early November.

This year, retailers made headlines on Thanksgiving Day in a greater number than ever before. Companies like Wal-Mart had adopted this method before, and more companies are following suit. Wal-Mart said more than 22 million people showed up to its stores on Thanksgiving and Black Friday, with an estimation of 10 million register transactions between 6 p.m. and 10 p.m. on Thanksgiving. Toys ‘R’ Us in Manhattan had more than 200 people stood in line before its 5 p.m. opening.

Mall stores such as Old Navy and Abercrombie & Fitch also opened Thursday night. Some stores had people waiting to go into specific stores as early as 11 a.m., nine hours earlier than opening. Last year Macy’s, J.C. Penney and Kohl’s didn’t partake, but this year Macy’s drew a record-breaking crowd on Thanksgiving.

Target said it saw lines stretch for several blocks before its 8 p.m. openings. And Toys ‘R’ Us saw crowds gathering at 4:30 p.m. The online sales were also robust, with Adobe says online purchasing surpassed $1 billion for the first time. IBM Digital Analytics Benchmark said Thanksgiving web sales rose 20% from 2012, with an average order value of $127.59. Social media platforms like Instagram announced that Thanksgiving 2013 in the US was the busiest day on Instagram so far.

Thanksgiving opening is getting more popular, and it has in fact taken a bite out of Black Friday sales since last year. Sales on Thanksgiving were $810 million last year, an increase of 55 percent from the previous year as more stores opened on the holiday, according to Chicago research firm ShopperTrak. And sales dropped 1.8% to $11.2 billion on Black Friday, even though it was still the busiest and the biggest shopping day last year.