The company's performance declined during the mid-to-late 2010s due to the shift of video game sales to online shopping and failed investments by GameStop in smartphone retail.

In 2021, after retail investors on Reddit noticed that the short interest exceeded 100%, the company's stock price skyrocketed from $17.25 to over US$500 per share.

[6] GameStop traces its roots to Babbage's, a Dallas, Texas–based software retailer founded on August 20, 1980 by former Harvard Business School classmates James McCurry and Gary M.

[16] The leadership changes were not enough; in November 1996, the assets of NeoStar were purchased for $58.5 million by Leonard Riggio, a founder of Software Etc.

[19] A few months later, in May 2000, Barnes & Noble acquired Funco, the owner of Eden Prairie, Minnesota–based video game retailer FuncoLand, for $160 million.

[55] In November 2014, Draw Another Circle LLC, a company controlled by merchandising executive Joel Weinshanker that also owns Hastings Entertainment, purchased MovieStop.

The brand, which had 80 locations in shopping malls during the Christmas and holiday season, focused on children's products, and carried only games rated "Everyone" by the ESRB, along with merchandise of popular franchises aimed towards the demographic.

[86] In September 2014, GameStop announced its withdrawal from Spain and the sale of some of its stores to GAME, the very company it had tried to acquire only two years previously.

[106] In late June 2018, GameStop confirmed talks of a possible sale, with Sycamore Partners, a private equity firm, the most likely buyer,[107][108] with a target deal expected by February 2019.

[109] However, on January 29, 2019, GameStop reported it had stopped looking for a buyer for the company, due to a "lack of available financing on terms that would be commercially acceptable to a prospective acquirer", and was looking for other actions to help re-establish its financial ground.

After being on medical leave since November 2017 due to reoccurrence of a brain tumor, J. Paul Raines resigned from GameStop on January 31, 2018, and died on March 4, 2018.

[126] All GameStop stores in Puerto Rico were shut at the end of March 2016, citing increased rates of government taxes.

[citation needed] A leaked email revealed on July 31, 2019, indicated that 50 employees, including district and regional managers,[130] would be laid off as a result of reorganization efforts.

In the interview, Burry explained that both Sony and Microsoft would enter the next console generation with a physical disc drive and therefore likely extend the longevity of GameStop.

[137] In March 2020, four members of GameStop's board of directors – Dan DeMatteo, Gerald Szczepanski, Larry Zilavy, and Steve Koonin – stepped down and were replaced by Reggie Fils-Aimé, Bill Simon and J.K. Symancyk as part of the company's effort to turn around the business.

Government efforts to slow the spread of COVID-19 required GameStop to close the physical operation of all of its 3,500 stores from roughly March to May 2020, though not without some controversy in the early stages.

[147][148][149] GameStop stated that it would suspend in-store events (including midnight launches) and the use of demo stations, perform additional cleaning, and structure lines and limit store capacity to enforce physical distancing.

Several employees told Polygon and Vice that they did not receive additional cleaning supplies that were to be provided by corporate, requiring them to purchase them on their own and request reimbursement.

[147][151][149] A memo obtained by Kotaku on March 19 indicated that GameStop saw itself as an essential business because some of its technology products are relevant to enhancing remote work, required in many cases during the pandemic.

GameStop reiterated the safety measures that it had put in place, and also announced that it would reduce store hours and suspend all trade-ins until at least March 29, 2020, and offer curbside pickup.

[152][151] An employee of a GameStop store in Athens, Georgia (which was shut down on March 20 by order of the police to comply with a similar order in Athens-Clark County) disputed the argument, saying that the high-end, gaming-oriented peripherals (such as keyboards and mice) sold at GameStop were not necessarily essential for remote work, and that cheaper alternatives were readily available at stores allowed to remain open, such as Walmart.

[153][148] Following similar stay-at-home orders in New York and Illinois over the following days, GameStop announced that it would close all locations effective March 22, with selected locations continuing to offer contact-free curbside pickup (where an employee, wearing either gloves or a bag over their hands, would slip the customer's order through the front door, remaining behind the glass)[154] and home delivery.

[160][161] In December 2019, GameStop announced that it wind down its Nordic operations during 2020, closing its 100 stores across Denmark,[162] Finland,[163] Norway[164] and Sweden[165] by July 2020, and exiting those countries.

[198][199][200] On June 9, 2021, GameStop appointed former Amazon executives Matt Furlong and Mike Recupero as CEO and CFO respectively.

[207] Business Insider reported that "GameStop is building an NFT platform as part of an ambitious plan to transform itself into the Amazon of gaming.

Each month brings content segments about upcoming video game releases, exclusive developer interviews, and product demonstrations.

For example, GameStop included an additional avatar costume for Call of Duty: Black Ops when it was released in November 2010,[221] and a pictorial Art-Folio for Metroid: Other M.[222] Soundtracks, artbooks, plushies, figurines, posters, and T-shirts have also been special bonuses.

GameStop executive Mark Stanley said the concept was to help the chain have more direct communication with players, and would expect to expand out to other similar distribution deals with other developers if this one succeeds.

[225] In 2022, consulting firm BCG filed a lawsuit against GameStop as the latter allegedly denied payment of fee worth $30 million for a project.

GameStop's claim about BCG not having delivered any value and not being owed any money for their supposed "services" was not controversial after all, and the lawsuit regarding these matters was dismissed with prejudice.