GameStop Shares Take a Big Hit Amid 'Roaring Kitty' Anticipation

"Meme stock" darling Gamestop saw its shares drop by nearly 30% in premarket trading and continued to fall Friday on Wall Street. As of 11:15 a.m. ET, GameStop shares fell by 26% after the video game retailer posted a decline in sales, sending stocks into a nosedive.

The disappointing news on the store's earnings report far outweighed the excitement in anticipation of "Roaring Kitty's" YouTube livestream. "Roaring Kitty," whose real name is Keith Gill, is a trader and one of the notable figures in the famous "meme stock" rally of 2021.

The video game retailer posted net sales of $881.8 million for the period, which was a decrease by 29% from a net sales of $1.237 billion the previous year. The dip in sales was actually higher compared to the expected decline by two analysts who were covering the stock. As per FactSet, the analysts estimated the sales to be between $900 million to $1.09 billion.

In early trading hours, shares were already volatile and at around 6:45 am ET, it went 5% lower, CNBC reported. The dip overshadowed the initial gains of more than 30%, which was a product of the excitement over "Roaring Kitty's" expected livestream.

For the first quarter, GameStop reported a loss of $32.3 million. The number is actually lower compared to the $50.5 million loss in the same period the year before. However, what analysts missed was the $881.8 million sales figure.

The company also updated consumers wtih regards to its ongoing stock sales. It revealed that aside from the 45 million share sale it announced in May, it will also be selling an additional 75 million shares.

"Roaring Kitty" is expected to discuss his GameStop stake after he shared a screenshot of his portfolio on Monday evening. However, CNBC said that they were unable to verify the Gamestop stake of "Roaring Kitty" as well as his portfolio.

According to Financial Times, the screenshot that Gill posted on Reddit showed that his stock and options holdings were worth $557 million.