GameStop Corporation’s grateful for the Nintendo Switch, and our never-ending quest to catch ‘em all.  The company reported a 3.8% increase in global net sales for the quarter ending April 29, 2017, pushing the company’s total global sales for the quarter to $2.05 billion.  That figure qualifies as good news, coming on the heels of a steep 18.7% drop in sales over the holiday season. (See "GameStop, FYE, Report Sharp Holiday Declines").

A sizable chunk of the global net sales increase was due to the March release of Nintendo’s new, popular and difficult-to-find portable console.  GameStop’s new hardware sales jumped nearly 25% on the back of the Nintendo Switch, at the same time new software sales declined 8.2%, down to $521 million from $567 million in the same quarter of 2016.  Pre-owned sales, historically GameStop’s primary bread and butter, declined another 6.2%.

Collectible sales were another bright spot for GameStop, particularly those related to Pokemon, the company said.  Collectible sales surged more than 39%, bringing in $114.5 million in global sales.  That’s up from the 27.8% growth the company saw in this category in the previous quarter.

To capitalize further on this trend, GameStop continued its gradual shift from games to merchandise. (See "GameStop Planning 35 new Collectible Stores in 2017").  The company added another nine collectibles-only stores to its global portfolio during the first quarter of 2017, bringing the total number of stores worldwide up to 95.