GameStop ekes out growth for holiday 2015

GameStop released the results of its holiday sales period and while they aren't as disappointing as its last quarterly report -- which saw new hardware sales decline 20.4 percent and new software sales fall by 9.3 percent -- they're not exciting, either.

For the nine-week period ended January 2, 2016, which is how GameStop defines the "holiday," saw a 1.8 increase in sales, with new hardware increasing 4.5 percent and new software sales increasing a more robust 38 percent. Pre-owned sales declined a mere 0.3 percent.

Decreased demand for this year's Nintendo titles and last-gen games hamstrung the software sales numbers even more, the company said.

However, the company's big increases came outside of the video game space: its "Technology Brands" reveues leapt 59.9 percent on the back of sales of the iPhone 6S and other gear. The company has aggressively moved into the mobile space since 2012. The company also saw an 80.4 percent leap in its "Other" category, driven mainly by collectibles revenue in the wake of its ThinkGeek acquisition.

In other words, the company is seeing its biggest growth outside the video game space -- though that isn't shrinking as fast as it is for its non-U.S. competitor Game.