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Northwest Herald

McHenry GameStop among several closed in northern Illinois

GameStop is seen Monday, Jan. 12, 2026, at 2564 Sycamore Road in DeKalb.

A shuttered GameStop is seen Monday in DeKalb. (Megann Horstead)

By Janelle Walker and Denise M. Baran-Unland

McHenry’s GameStop is no more.

The business was one of several of the gaming and collectibles stores around Illinois that closed in recent days or is about to be shuttered.

“Game Stop closed many stores very quickly [and] is closing numerous stores throughout the country and closed in McHenry” Thursday, Doug Martin, McHenry’s economic development director, confirmed in an email.

GameStop’s corporate team said in a December 2025 SEC filing that 590 store locations were discontinued in 2024 alone.

“We anticipate closing a significant number of additional stores in fiscal 2025,” GameStop’s corporate team said in the December 2025 SEC filing.

The website GameStop Closing List tracks the chain’s closures and said 470 have shut down so far this month.

Stores closed in suburban Chicago include DeKalb, Geneva and South Elgin. Will County saw three stores close in New Lennox, Joliet and Shorewood.

Longstruggling as gamers move to titles downloaded from the internet, GameStop saw its stock rise by 2,500% in January 2021 as fans of the company artificially manipulated its price.

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Janelle Walker

Janelle Walker

Originally from North Dakota, Janelle covered the suburbs and collar counties for nearly 20 years before taking a career break to work in content marketing. She is excited to be back in the newsroom.

Denise Unland

Denise M. Baran-Unland

Denise M. Baran-Unland is the features editor for The Herald-News in Joliet. She covers a variety of human interest stories. She also writes the long-time weekly tribute feature “An Extraordinary Life about local people who have died. She studied journalism at the College of St. Francis in Joliet, now the University of St. Francis.