--- title: "GameStop Stock Is Crashing Catastrophically After Meme Hype" description: "Reddit's wallstreetbets meme stock investors are back in full force — but their latest ruse isn't playing out as expected." date: "2024-05-17" modified: "2024-05-17" authors: - name: "Victor Tangermann" job_title: "Senior Editor" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/victor" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/gamestop-stock-crashing-meme-hype" categories: - "Future Society" tags: - "gamestop" - "meme stock" - "reddit" - "the digest" --- # GameStop Stock Is Crashing Catastrophically After Meme Hype ![Reddit's wallstreetbets meme stock investors are back in full force — but their latest ruse isn't playing out as expected.]() *\Image: Futurism\* ## Roaring Kitty Rally Reddit's WallStreetBets meme stock investors are back in full force — but their latest ruse isn't playing out as expected. Shares of AMC and GameStop shot up several hundred percent earlier this week, driven by excitement over the return of Keith "Roaring Kitty" Gill, who [posted a dumb meme]() on X-formerly-Twitter, the first account activity in three years. Gill [was a key figure]() in the 2021 [coordinated "short squeeze]()" by Reddit investing enthusiasts, causing the shares of both companies to shoot up and plummet back down, birthing the "meme stock" trend. The story became so big that it was later turned into a Hollywood movie, a 2023 comedy called "Dumb Money," starring Paul Dano as Gill. Unfortunately, what goes up must come down. As expected, shares of both GameStop and AMC have since plummeted this week, with the video game retailer [sinking as much as 30 percent on Friday alone](). After all, this wasn't about the company suddenly turning things around after years of losses — it was a meme stock ruse by a number of redditors who were in it for the "lols." https://twitter.com/TheRoaringKitty/status/1791472490637914238 ## Greater Fools Investors who got bought and then sold at exactly the right moment made a killing — but consequently left anyone who didn't time things perfectly out to dry. It's also an unfortunate situation for GameStop. The mall retailer is doing even worse than investors thought, with the announcement that it was expecting a considerable drop in quarter-over-quarter sales pushing its stock even lower than before WallStreetBets even got involved. "I'm not seeing anything in the preannouncement that tells me that the business is turning around," Wedbush managing director Michael Pachter [told *Yahoo Finance*](). "But at least they'll raise enough cash to last them another three or four years if they, in fact, continue to fail and try to find a new strategy." GameStop went as far as to warn investors that they "may lose a significant portion of their investments" if shares were to continue to fall. Meanwhile, embattled movie theater chain AMC managed to raise $250 million in new equity and is still up 50 percent week over week, seemingly coming out of the "frenzy" [largely unscathed](). **More on meme stocks:** *[Economist Slams Elon Musk for Making Tesla a "Tech-Bubble" Meme Stock]()* ## Author I've been at Futurism since 2017, where my role has evolved to encompass design, writing, and increasingly editing. I've always been fascinated by space exploration and advanced transportation, which I've leaned into by interviewing luminaries in those fields while closely following the dimensions of policy and regulation that allow next-generation projects to succeed -- or, sometimes, to fail. I'm also keenly interested in the effects of generative AI on society, policies, and democratic institutions, as well as clean energy, physics and biology, and the vagaries of tech leadership. My work for Futurism has been cited by publications including Ars Technica, Gizmodo, PC Magazine, Jalopnik, Fox News, and the New York Post. I spent my childhood living in locations including Manila, the Philippines, and Geneva, Switzerland, attended McGill University, and now live in Toronto, Canada. Before Futurism I worked at AskMen and a small photography studio. In my free time, I'm an avid gardener, foodie, and craft beer lover, as well as a maker of artisanal hot pepper sauces. I have a magnificent dog named Freida. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()