Earlier this year, a weak earnings report and wave of store closures had us thinking about the long, slow decline of brick-and-mortar game retail. Today, things look a little brighter, with GameStop reporting healthy sales growth along with an incredible factoid about its centrality to the modern console software market.

"Our hardware and software market share continues to expand and is now at an all time high as we go into the critical holiday season," GameStop President Tony Bartel said during an earnings call. “We continue to sell over one half of all PS4 and Xbox One titles.”

Let that sink in for a second: a single chain of gaming stores sells more individual Xbox One and PS4 games than all the big box stores, retail websites, and direct digital downloads combined. That doesn't sound like a business that's on the verge of collapse. Total, year-over-year sales growth of 25 percent for the quarter, including a 16 percent increase in new software sales, also sounds pretty healthy for GameStop.

Despite the current signs of strength, though, GameStop's brick-and-mortar business could still be in trouble if the console market follows the trajectory of the PC market. Back in 2010, NPD estimated that downloads made up only 42 percent of all PC game sales. Today, that number is up to 92 percent . Downloads currently make up an estimated 20 percent of console game sales , but with new consoles offering practically every retail game via a day-one downloadable option, who knows how long that will last?

Then again, GameStop may be able to weather the transition away from retail stores better than most. The company reported its "digital receipts" were up 18 percent year-over-year in the most recent quarter, including a 13 percent increase in "console digital." That is to say, GameStop is making more money than ever selling download codes for console games and DLC in its stores (and on its website).

If GameStop plays its cards right, the brand could evolve from "the place you go to sell your discs for store credit" to "the place you go to buy a download code with cash." For now, though, it's overwhelmingly the place people go when they want to buy games for their new consoles.