GAME is to shut down its remaining standalone stores in the UK this year after entering administration once more.
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GAME is one of the last remaining dedicated gaming stores left on UK high streets but that’s set to change later this year.
As reported by TheGameBusiness, all three of GAME’s remaining brick-and-mortar stores (Dudley, Lancaster and Sutton) will close their doors from April 2026. GAME shops in Chatham and Belfast were closed in January and the organisation started the administration process the same month after weak Christmas sales.
It’s believed that the 200 GAME stores that are part of Sports Direct and House Of Fraser won’t be affected by the decision and the online store is expected to remain live.
“I feel kinda sad. I used to love going into GAME as a kid. Spending ages flipping through the pre-owned games bin for the right game, saving up my pocket money/birthday money for a brand new game. Sad that it just became a funkopop slop shop,” wrote one fan on X.
“This is so mad on the face of it. Over 40 per cent of the UK entertainment revenue comes from gaming and we’re the 4th biggest market in the world. But now that GAME is gone, there’s no longer a dedicated store for video games in this country now,” said another.
Game closing it’s last stores in the UK really is the end of an era.
A generation of childhood memories, just like Blockbuster. pic.twitter.com/QeUb8ISK4c
— Bosch (@boschmerchant) February 3, 2026
GAME was founded in 1990 and had 86 stores by the end of 1999. It went on to take over its main UK competitor Gamestation in 2006 and expanded into Australia, Spain and Ireland. However it entered administration in 2012 and was sold to Frasers Group in 2019 for £52million. Following the deal, a majority of standalone GAME stores were closed and replaced with concessions in Sports Direct and House Of Fraser shops instead.
In 2024, GAME stopped buying pre-owned games and consoles as the market for physical games continued to shrink due to the popularity of digital and streaming.
Speaking to TheGameBusiness in 2023, former GAME boss Mick Arran said: “Gaming is our core business and we will be the last man standing selling physical video games. We see our place in the market as proving that there is a place for physical, whether that be the collector’s editions, which we see as the vinyl of video games, or the gifter who doesn’t want to wrap up a download code for Christmas. But we need to be realistic. We have a business to run and the expectation is this will decline. So we need to fill that gap.”
In other news, the mysterious Fallout countdown reached zero this morning (February 4) and, instead of news about Fallout 3 or New Vegas remasters, only revealed more BTS clips from the Amazon Prime Video adaptation.
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