For the nine-week holiday period ended on January 3, 2015, GameStop has reported global sales of $2.94 billion, a 6.7% decline when compared to the 2013 holiday sales period. They add, “Due to the current strength of the US dollar, the company’s sales were negatively impacted by foreign currency exchange rates as described in this release.”
CEO Paul Raines talked about GameStop’s holiday results:
During the holiday period, consumer demand for video games was strong, resulting in new software sales growth. We expect that trend to continue into the first quarter. Overall, each of our business units performed well giving us positive momentum as we look toward 2015.
Total comparable stores saw 3.1% drop overall, with -3.3% in the US and -2.7% internationally. Looking at specific months, November’s comparable store sales were down 12% due to the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One launches last year, while December’s comparable store sales increased by 4.4%.
Switching to sales categories, new software sales rose 5.8%. This boost was helped by a 94.4% increase in PS4 and Xbox One software sales, headlined by Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare, Grand Theft Auto V, and Far Cry 4.
Over in hardware, there was a decline of 32%, which is attributed to the new consoles launches last year, as well as the cheaper price point of the Xbox One this year. People are still buying the new-gen consoles though, with December 2014 unit sales up 31.3% compared to December 2013.
Meanwhile, digital receipts rose 42.8% to $296.6 million, which was driven by an increase of more than 50% for console digital sales. Pre-owned sales, however, dropped 1.3%.
[Source: GameStop]
