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GameStop to Close 300 More Stores This Year

Last year, the company closed 321 stores. Now it's set on closing an equal or higher number of stores in 2020 to help improve its earnings.

Michael Kan
 & Michael Kan Principal Reporter

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GameStop will close another 300 stores after shutting down 321 retail locations in 2019. 

“In 2020, we will continue our work to de-densify our global store fleet and anticipate store closures to be equal to or more than 320 net closures we saw in fiscal 2019 on a global basis,” CFO Jim Bell said in an earnings call on Thursday. 

GameStop currently has 5,500 stores across 14 countries, but the retail locations have struggled to compete against digital video game purchases. For fiscal 2019,  the stores reported a year-over-year sales drop of 19 percent. As a result, the video game retailer last year began shutting down stores to save on costs. The same move in 2020 unfortunately means more layoffs for company employees. 

During the earnings call, no mention was made of which stores will close. But GameStop says it’s been winding down operations in Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden and plans to exit these markets by late July, which the company projects will help it save more than $50 million. 

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The cost-cutting comes as GameStop has been trying to rake in sales in the face of the coronavirus pandemic. Last week, the company sparked controversy for keeping its US stores open even as several major cities ordered lockdowns. In response, GameStop claimed it was an “essential” business and should remain open, despite the risks to employees and in-store customers.  

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The company has since reversed course and temporarily shut down GameStop stores in the US. “We have temporarily closed our storefronts moving to curbside pickup at stores to facilitate online and pick-up-in-store orders and e-commerce deliveries only,” GameStop CEO George Sherman said during the earnings call. 

To help improve earnings, the company plans on selling more “higher-margin” products, including PC gaming peripherals. “In 2019, we expanded our PC gaming business in the stores and we’ll continue to expand our offering in 2020 and beyond, as we cater to all the needs of our gaming customers,” Sherman added.

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About Our Expert

Michael Kan

Michael Kan

Principal Reporter

My Experience

I've been a journalist for over 15 years. I got my start as a schools and cities reporter in Kansas City and joined PCMag in 2017, where I cover satellite internet services, cybersecurity, PC hardware, and more. I'm currently based in San Francisco, but previously spent over five years in China, covering the country's technology sector.

Since 2020, I've covered the launch and explosive growth of SpaceX's Starlink satellite internet service, writing 600+ stories on availability and feature launches, but also the regulatory battles over the expansion of satellite constellations, fights with rival providers like AST SpaceMobile and Amazon, and the effort to expand into satellite-based mobile service. I've combed through FCC filings for the latest news and driven to remote corners of California to test Starlink's cellular service.

I also cover cyber threats, from ransomware gangs to the emergence of AI-based malware. In 2024 and 2025, the FTC forced Avast to pay consumers $16.5 million for secretly harvesting and selling their personal information to third-party clients, as revealed in my joint investigation with Motherboard.

I also cover the PC graphics card market. Pandemic-era shortages led me to camp out in front of a Best Buy to get an RTX 3000. I'm now following how the AI-driven memory shortage is impacting the entire consumer electronics market. I'm always eager to learn more, so please jump in the comments with feedback and send me tips.

The Best Tech I've Had:

  • My first video game console: a Nintendo Famicom
  • I loved my Sega Saturn despite PlayStation's popularity.
  • The iPod Video I received as a gift in college
  • Xbox 360 FTW
  • The Galaxy Nexus was the first smartphone I was proud to own.
  • The PC desktop I built in 2013, which still works to this day.

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