More Than Half Of All PS4 And Xbox One Games Are Being Sold Through GameStop

More than one half of all PlayStation 4 and Xbox One games are being sold by popular retail chain GameStop (NYSE:GME), according to a recent earnings call by the Grapevine, Texas-based retailer.

"Our hardware and software market share continues to expand and is now at an all time high as we go into the critical holiday season," GameStop President Tony Bartel said. “We continue to sell over one half of all PS4 and Xbox One titles.”

This is great news, since GameStop announced earlier this year that it planned to close 120 to 130 stores worldwide, leaving millions to wonder if the era of brick-and-mortal video game stores would soon come to an end.

The gaming retailer shut down a number of its 6,457 global locations at the end of its fiscal year on May 31. The brand will focus more on mobile gaming and open hundreds of Apple-related and mobile retail stores, Spring Mobile and Simply Mac.

Though 120 to 130 stores made up only about 2 percent of the total, CEO Paul Raines called the renovation “GameStop 3.0,” a “new phase of the company’s lifespan that will see it aggressively expand its footprint into gaming-adjacent tech fields.”

Though software sales don’t seem to be dwindling, this may be a smart move for the 30-year-old company, which was founded in 1984 as Babbage’s and is now based in Grapevine, Texas. NYC-based market research company eMarketer projects that smartphone users will reach 1.75 billion this year, which is nearly 25 percent of the entire global population.

GameStop also saw a year-over-year sales growth of 25 percent during the quarter, along with a 16 percent increase in new software sales.