Collectibles, Not Discs, Are Now Carrying GameStop's Bottom Line Ahead of GTA 6's Launch
Written by the GTA6 Resources team
GameStop just posted its best Q2 operating income since going public in 2002 -- and video games had almost nothing to do with it.
GameStop's latest earnings report, covering the fiscal quarter that ended August 1, shows a company that looks less and less like the video game retailer players grew up with. Per GameSpot, operating income hit $160.2 million, the highest Q2 figure in the company's history as a public company, while net income climbed to $298.7 million from $168.6 million a year earlier.
The engine behind those numbers wasn't games. GameStop's collectibles category jumped 57% year-over-year to $356.3 million, now accounting for 45.1% of net sales. Meanwhile, the "video game" category fell hard, from $494.6 million to $263.2 million, a drop GameStop attributes to last year's Switch 2 launch boosting the comparison period. Pre-owned and refurbished sales also declined, from $250 million to $170.7 million. Overall net sales fell from $972.2 million to $790.2 million, partly due to store closures and GameStop exiting its operations in France, and the stock dropped after the report.
Notably, GameSpot points out that GameStop CEO Ryan Cohen has called physical game sales "irrelevant" to the company at this point, and has floated ideas like live-shopping commerce and a marketplace for reselling digital game items. GameStop is also still pursuing a takeover bid for eBay, whose board has so far rejected its offers, even though GameStop already holds a large stake in the company.
For GTA 6 fans, this report lands at an interesting moment. Rockstar has confirmed GTA 6 won't ship on disc for PS5, aligning with Sony's broader move away from physical media, and there's been speculation that losing disc sales for one of the biggest releases in gaming history could hurt a retailer like GameStop. This earnings report suggests otherwise -- by Cohen's own account, physical game revenue is no longer central to GameStop's business model, so GTA 6 skipping discs likely won't dent the company the way it might have a decade ago.
Practically speaking, this probably means GameStop's GTA 6 launch-day presence will lean more heavily on merchandise, collectibles, and pre-order bundles than boxed copies. If Cohen's comments about a digital resale marketplace ever materialize, it could eventually give GameStop a role in the GTA 6 economy even without selling a single disc -- though that idea remains speculative and untested for now.
