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As CEO Ryan Cohen is promised billions, GameStop employees claim they were barely given notice about closures

GameStop starts 2026 by closing hundreds of stores as CEO gambles on $35B payday

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In the first weekend of 2026, many surprised GameStop customers were notified that their local stores would soon be closing down. But if GameStop is doing poorly right now, it's not evident from the headlines currently circulating about the gaming retailer. Instead, GameStop's company board proudly announced that it would be offering CEO Ryan Cohen up to $35 billion in performance-based stock options, with one catch. The meme stock overlord needs to raise GameStop's market cap by billions of dollars, and ensure that its earnings are similarly explosive.

To the chagrin of some affected workers, news of their impending unemployment was dispersed with print-outs taped to storefronts, where customers could scan a QR code to get a coupon for a 20% trade-in bonus. That same bonus was also mentioned in the emails sent directly to customers, according to social media posts. A number of customers note that nearby closures have left them with few options for purchasing games, with some having to drive anywhere from 30 minutes to over an hour to get to the next available GameStop. While many customers learned of the closures at the last moment, others took advantage of the situation by hitting up their local stores for goodies, like store displays and posters.

As some employees tell it, some of the closures came as a shock — even well-performing locations weren't safe from the shutdowns. By some estimates, up to 296 stores closed this week or will soon shutter their doors, with dozens more still in the process of being confirmed for the total count.

"We are all cattle to the corporate [masters], numbers on a sheet, disposed of at their whim," one worker affected by the closures .