Topline
Shares of GameStop surged more than 7% in premarket trading early on Monday morning after the White House boosted a social media post made by the video game retailer with an AI-generated meme of President Donald Trump.
GameStop shares surged in premarket trading after its X post was boosted by the White House.
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Key Facts
The retailer’s X account, which regularly posts memes about video game culture, made one such post on Saturday night, declaring that the “console wars” were over after Microsoft announced plans to release the flagship Xbox game “Halo” on rival Sony’s PlayStation 5.
On Sunday night, the White House’s official X account reshared GameStop’s X post, featuring an apparent AI-generated image of Trump saluting the American flag outside the White House while donning the armor of Halo’s protagonist, the Master Chief.
The White House post is captioned “Power to the Players,” GameStop’s official slogan.
The White House’s “Rapid Response” X account also chimed in on the meme, suggesting that this was the ninth war Trump had stopped—echoing the president’s claims that he has ended eight wars since taking office.
The GameStop account has since responded with its own meme posts depicting Trump and Vice President JD Vance in the Halo universe.
How Has This Impacted Gamestop’s Stock?
In pre-market trading early on Monday, GameStop’s share price rose to $25.03, up 7.4% from Friday. The popular meme stock has been volatile so far this year, and its price is down 25.65% since the start of 2025.
Why Is Gamestop Tweeting About The End Of The Console War?
The tongue-in-cheek post made by GameStop on Saturday declared that the “console war” began in the early 2000s, “with the release of Halo: Combat Evolved as an Xbox-exclusive title,” and it has now ended. Last week, Microsoft announced that it was remaking the first entry in Xbox’s flagship sci-fi shooter franchise under the title “Halo: Campaign Evolved,” which will release in 2026. Aside from Xbox and Windows, the remake will also be available on Sony’s PlayStation 5, making it the first Halo title to hit Microsoft’s rival console. Big flagship first-party titles like Halo are usually exclusive to the publisher’s own platform, but Microsoft has been moving away from this model as its Xbox consoles have struggled to compete with the PlayStation 5 and Nintendo’s Switch 2 in sales. During the announcement, Xbox also said that future Halo titles will also be released on PlayStation.
Forbes Valuation
According to our estimates, GameStop CEO and Chairman Ryan Cohen—who owns nearly 8.2% of GameStop shares—has a net worth of $5.3 billion.
Further Reading
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