GameStop’s NFT marketplace fails to impress at launch, but can it stimulate mainstream adoption?

GameStop (GME) announced the launch of its long-awaited NFT marketplace on Monday. The video game retailer’s dive into NFTs is seen as an attempt to reinvent its business and capitalize on the emerging crypto and NFT markets.

Despite all the hype, however, the NFT marketplace brought GameStop around $ 45,000 in transaction fees during the first 24 hours, which is a minimal drop in the bucket for a company of that size.

GameStop announces NFT Marketplace

On Monday, GameStop announced the long-awaited debut of its NFT marketplace in an effort to reinvent its business and monetize consumers’ use of digital assets. The platform, now open to the public, allows users to purchase NFTs by connecting to their digital assets, including the newly launched GameStop Wallet.

The marketplace currently has a total of 53,300 NFTs from 236 collections. Apart from NFTs created on its own platform, the marketplace also supports collections from other major marketplaces such as OpenSea.

GameStop first revealed plans to launch an NFT marketplace in May 2021. At the time, the game retailer launched a website called nft.gamestop.com, which included a call to action for developers, engineers and community leaders. By the end of 2021, the company had posted several NFT and “Web3 gaming” positions.

GameStop has also recently launched its Web3 wallet. Called the GameStop Wallet, users can use it to interact with the company’s NFT platform. “Store, send and receive NFTs. Easily connect to the upcoming GameStop NFT marketplace and swap NFTs from anywhere,” the wallet website states.

Meanwhile, the marketplace managed to bring in around $ 45,000 in transaction fees within the first 24 hours. Considering that the gaming retailer raised over $ 6 billion in net sales (or $ 16.5 million per day) over the past full fiscal year, marketplace revenue is just a drop in the bucket.

It is worth noting that the poor performance of the NFT marketplace may have contributed to the general poor NFT market conditions, which have seen a significant decline in trading volume in the last few weeks. According to data from The Block, monthly NFT volume has fallen to its lowest level since July 2021.

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Can GameStop Spur NFT Adoption?

GameStop, once a go-to for video games and consoles, has expanded its range of digital services and online products, as evidenced by the launch of the NFT marketplace and crypto wallet. While these new services can help the once-struggling video game retailer monetize new technologies, they can also boost the use of NFTs.

It’s no secret that GameStop is quite popular with retailers, who helped burn a so-called meme frenzy last year. This puts the video game retailer in a unique position to attract retailers to the NFT market, which can also increase the use of digital assets.

In addition, GameStop said that over time, the marketplace “will expand its functionality to include more categories such as Web3 games, more creators and other Ethereum environments.” This can also help attract crypto and blockchain players as well as other crypto-native users.

Meanwhile, the tension around GameStop’s NFT marketplace has also had a positive effect on the company’s shares, which ended the day with more than 5%. The company’s shares are also currently in the green in the pre-market, up by around 1%.

How do you think GameStop’s NFT marketplace will affect the overall NFT market? Let us know in the comments below.

About the author

Ruholamin Haqshanas is a skilled crypto and financial journalist with over two years of experience in writing in the field. He has a solid grip on various segments of the FinTech area, including decentralized iteration of financial systems (DeFi), and the emerging market for non-fungible tokens (NFT). He is an active user of digital assets for money transfers.