GameStop To Shutter Nearly 500 Stores As CEO Seeks $35B Stock Option Award
GameStop is pulling the plug on nearly 500 of its stores this month.
The company's board approved a potential $35B stock award for CEO Ryan Cohen, contingent on GameStop reaching a $100B market cap by the end of its fiscal year. Around the same time, the video game and accessories retailer began closing hundreds of its stores.
The list of already shuttered brick-and-mortar locations and those planned to close reached 470 stores in 43 states as of Tuesday, according to a blog tracking the closures.
As part of a "comprehensive store portfolio optimization," GameStop closed 590 of its U.S. stores during its 2024 fiscal year, according to the company's December filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The chain also said it expected to close a "significant number of additional stores" during its 2025 fiscal year, which concludes on Jan. 31.
At the beginning of its current fiscal year, GameStop had more than 3,200 stores around the globe and 2,325 in the U.S., according to the filing. The company has already ceased much of its international operations, including Austria, Canada, Germany, Ireland, Italy and Switzerland, The Verge reported.
It also plans to end its operations in France in the next 12 months.
GameStop didn’t immediately respond to Bisnow’s request for comment.
After the company announced plans to sell its operations in Canada and France, Cohen made his displeasure with "wokeness" and diversity, equity and inclusion policies known in a post on X.
"Email M&A@gamestop.com if you’re interested in buying GameStop Canada or Micromania France," Cohen wrote on the social media platform. "High taxes, Liberalism, Socialism, Progressivism, Wokeness and DEI included at no additional cost if you buy today!"
GameStop had $821M in net sales during the third quarter, a decline from the more than $860M in sales it had during the same period of its 2024 fiscal year.
Operating income improved significantly year-over-year, surpassing $41M in the third quarter, up from an operating loss of $33.4M a year prior. And net income improved from $17.4M in the third quarter of 2024 to more than $77M during the company's most recently completed quarter.
GameStop also drew significant attention in 2021 when it became a so-called meme stock after social media highlighted the sizable shorting of the company's shares.
Specialty retailers like GameStop struggled in 2025. Fabric and craft store Joann and party supply retailer Party City each went out of business, closing more than 1,500 stores between them last year.
