'Robust' Switch Sales Boost GameStop Quarterly Earnings

Overall, U.S. sales were down 2.3%, while International sales were up more than 17% year over year.

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GameStop has reported its first quarter earnings, and despite a slight slump on the U.S. side, the company had a 3.8% overall growth over the same quarter last year, with $2.05 billion in sales.

The company, which has an odd quarterly reporting cycle ending January, April, July, and October each year, attributed the boon to "robust" sales of the Nintendo Switch, which released at the beginning of March. The company reported a few weeks after launch that Switch was doing "phenomenal" in early sales, and could eclipse the Nintendo Wii's success.

Overall, U.S. store sales were down 3.2% for the quarter, but international sales more than made up for it, with a 17.1% jump. Switch sales spurred hardware numbers to a 24.6%, but new software was down 8.2% compared to the same period last year. GameStop attributed the loss to a strong released of Dark Souls 3, The Division and Street Fighter V in Q1 last year, with no real trio of games pulling the same type of numbers this quarter.

Overall earnings were down about 10% from $65.8 million to $59 million, but the company reported that its diversification efforts of adding collectibles, such as Pokemon products, to its stores has proven successful. Quarterly sales were up a whopping 39.1% to $114.5 million, while Technology Brand sales jumped 21.5% to $201.4 million.

The company been going through some rough spots lately, having had to close numerous stores over poor performance. The company even had to deal with reports that hackers accessing customer data and credit card info.

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