GameStop has been in hot water for some time now. But the company’s CEO, Ryan Cohen, should come away relatively unscathed, because, thanks to CNN, we now know he will score a $35 billion payout if the storefront hits a $100 billion market cap. One small issue: that’s about 10 times its current value.
How is Cohen planning on getting it there? Thanks to a Polygon report, we know that he intends to close hundreds of stores and to offer customers a 20 percent trade-in bonus via a QR code. Although we don’t have concrete numbers on exactly how many stores have been shut down, a post on a blog that tracks GameStop closures reports that close to 400 stores have either already been closed this month or are set to be closed before the month is over.
The trade coupon, meanwhile, was shared on the official GameStop Reddit page by a user who posted their frustration about the closure of their local store, saying “GameStop really put a trade coupon on my local stores closing sign?” In that same thread, the original poster voiced their frustrations by calling it “a fucking joke,” while others stated that they have begun canceling pre-orders.
It’s also worth noting that GameStop closed 590 stores in 2024, according to a December 2025 SEC filing. The filing goes on to state that the company plans on “closing a significant number of additional stores in fiscal 2025.” This is important because the 2025 fiscal year ends on January 31, 2026, which means more stores could close sooner rather than later. GameStop has also been closing stories across various countries worldwide. The same SEC Filing states that the company has already “exited” operations in Austria, Ireland, and Switzerland. In 2024, it also closed down store operations in Germany while selling off its Italian subsidiary.
Even as it shuts down stores en masse, GameStop has been doing everything it can to get attention back on the storefront over the last few months, partnering with popular influencers such as Casey Neistat and Mega64, and even with Rilie Huntley, a popular e-girl who originally went viral over a Best Buy ad. Just recently, the company had a “trade anything day“ which saw people bringing in all sorts of things, including sex toys. Just a few days earlier, the GameStop card loot program led to a record-breaking $30,000 trade-in.
