GameStop shares triple in a week, again

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Last week, Roaring Kitty A.K.A Keith Gill – the financial investor credited with spiking GameStop’s stock back in 2020 – made his first social media post in nearly three years, and as a result, trading shares of GameStop once again rose significantly.

After Gill’s initial post on X last Sunday – which was little more than a short clip of a person with a game controller in their hand sitting up to attention in a chair – the internet was rife with rumors about what it could mean.

Soon after, the Roaring Kitty dropped 11 more cryptic posts, mixing mashups of many popular songs, movies, and TV shows. Pretty much all of these clips had the same underlying suggestion of a return to action. However, Gill gave no actual mention of anything he was getting ready to do or mentioned anything about GameStop specifically.

Nevertheless, two days before Gill’s post, GameStop shares closed at $17.46, and the day after the post, they were up by just over 50% to $26.34. By the end of that same day (Mon, May 13) shares of the gaming retailer rose to a whopping $38.20.

On Wednesday May 15, trading stock in the company opened at $64.83 – a similar number to what it reached back in June 2021 during the original GameStop meme stock rally led by Gill. Though by the end of the day on Wednesday, the share price slipped to $39.55.

This is the first time GameStop shares have risen significantly since the meme rally in 2021 and it couldn’t have come at a better time for the company. In March, GameStop sales were down by 11% compared to the previous year, and a round of layoffs were carried out.

With game retailers like GameStop struggling, and the tech and gaming industries undergoing massive layoffs as a whole, is Roaring Kitty gearing up to lead another attempt at shaking up the world of gaming? If so, should more gamers get involved and try to save the industry they love before it becomes completely corporate and soulless?