Leading specialist US games retailer GameStop has reported a boost in sales and profits during the third quarter of its financial year.

During the three months ended October 31, 2009, the company saw sales rise 8.2 per cent year on year to $1.83 billion, and net earnings up 11.8 per cent to $52.2 million.

The top five selling games during the period were EA’s Madden NFL 10, Microsoft’s Halo 3: ODST, Warner’s Batman: Arkham Asylum, 2K Sports’ NBA 2K10 and Nintendo’s Wii Sports Resort.

GameStop also said that Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 recorded the biggest launch in the company’s history, and that it expects to grow 2009 earnings “in spite of industry weakness”.

“The holiday season has started strong,” said GameStop CEO Daniel DeMatteo. “In the first 72 hours of its release, GameStop sold over 2.5 million copies worldwide of Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. We are optimistic that the huge success of this game will serve as a bellwether for what we can expect for the remainder of our holiday game sales.”

For the full business year GameStop forecast diluted earnings per share to range from $2.45 to $2.63, representing annual EPS growth of plus two per cent to ten per cent.