- Primary Subject: GameStop [Fiscal Year 2025 / January 2026 Update]
- Key Update: GameStop is shuttering nearly 500 U.S. stores in January 2026 as it pivots toward collectibles and digital sales.
- Status: Confirmed
- Last Verified: January 28, 2026
- Quick Answer: GameStop is closing over 470 stores by January 31, 2026, amid a major shift toward collectibles and trading cards to offset declining physical game sales.
Ever since I was a child, I always gawked at the sight of the lit-up GameStop sign. The bold, curvy letters in black and white meant I was close to heaven, and I always bugged my dad to stop driving and stop, even if it was just for a quick lookaround.
The smell of carpet and the synthetic fiber imprinted on my knees while I snooped the shelves from top to bottom. Learning the meaning of ownership in the Pre-Owned section and coming up short at the register because of the pre-tax tags.
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There was nothing – and I mean nothing – quite like stopping at GameStop. From the door to the back of the store, it was filled with all imaginable consoles, boxes, and gadgets; truly a gamer’s paradise and a kid’s dream.
That’s why in my pre-teen years, I thoroughly remember thinking I’d pay part of my college tuition and get my first car by working at my local GameStop. Little did I know that by the time I was of working age, heaven shone no more.
Video game boxes were slowly but surely replaced by collectible items that weren’t entirely foreign to the shopping stands, but would start to creep up, taking more and more inventory and storefronts as the store’s system started to give less and less to gamers.
The fall of physical media did not help either, as delivery trucks filled warehouses with everything but video games, and midnight releases faded away from the mainstream, replaced by immediate online access, website orders, and digital copies. Most, if not all, of GameStop’s magic came from the surrounding ambience of a million gaming boxes.
You could spin, stop, and whichever degree you land from the full 360 would send you into a box art – sometimes recognizable, sometimes completely foreign, always eye-catching. I remember taking the empty shells to the register, only for the employee to open a drawer like a filing cabinet and pull out the respective disc or cartridge that fit perfectly with the box’s aesthetic.
Now, you’re lucky to find physical copies as most corners of a GameStop are filled to the brim with Funko Pops, t-shirts, and PC parts. What was once a sanctuary for gamers became a glorified novelty shop and pop culture’s Hot Topic, leading the company to close almost 500 stores in January 2026.
The company’s "edge lord" current persona does not reflect the core values it once inspired in the gaming community. It used to be about passion for gaming. Where is that power now? Now, it baits for clicks and seeks engagement, trying to sound like “one of us.”
Y’all were us, man. Then, gaming companies got greedy, which shifted the store’s focus to accommodate the market’s desire. But it wasn’t about the market, it was about games. Fantasy games, sports games, shooting games, video games.
If Blockbuster went out of business for failing to reinvent itself, GameStop will /tp straight into bankruptcy for failing to keep alive what brought life to everyone around them: games. On the brink of failure, should we really let GameStop Continue and get away with it? Or should we take away the last token?
Maybe, when the time is right, and GameStop inevitably shuts down due to the cloud transition completing its course and online shopping becoming the norm, we can all look back fondly at the red and white sign that we all hated for lowballing us, but loved to go back to in classic toxic gamer fashion. Or maybe, we’ll all give it exactly the same credit they gave to us: little to nothing. You know, a tit for tat quid pro quo.
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