By Shara Tibken

Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES

NEW YORK (Dow Jones)--Shares of GameStop Corp. (GME) jumped as much as 6.2% Friday after the videogame retailer reported November sales much better than the rest of the industry.

Early Friday, the company said U.S. stores saw a 15% rise in new software sales in November as it continued to gain market share.

This sharply contrasts with videogame industry results from data tracker NPD late Thursday. The group reported revenue from videogame sales fell a surprising 3.1% amid expectations of mild growth in the mid-single-digit percentage range.

"People are looking at the strong performance of GameStop compared with the industry and say it's gaining a ton of market share," Sterne Agee & Leach analyst Arvind Bhatia said.

He added the wide discrepancy between the results from GameStop and NPD calls into question the reliability of NPD's data for the month.

"I believe that GameStop gained a lot of share, but even adjusting for that, I'm questioning the [NPD] data a little, too," Bhatia said.

Still, Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter said it's not really that unusual for GameStop to post a big gain in sales, especially with its new "Call of Duty" game.

"I think they're actually having a good quarter," Pachter said. "The decline in sales is more attributable to casual people not buying software. The hardcore gamer is still showing his recession resistance."

In recent trading, GameStop shares climbed 3.8% to $21.98 after earlier rising as high as $22.50. Despite Friday's gains, shares have slid 11% over the past three months.

Bhatia said the stock has a lot of short interest, with people being negative on the company.

"The company's announcement this morning alleviates some concerns," Bhatia said.

Still, investors have had reason to be worried. Last week, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (WMT) announced price cuts on videogames and console systems that could help it steal market share from videogame retailers like GameStop. Investors saw the 15% to 20% discounts by Wal-Mart as negative for GameStop, sending it shares down over 8% the day the price cuts were announced.

But analysts at the time said the impact on GameStop would likely be small or last a short time and that the company would be able to withstand the competition, in part because of its sale of used videogames.

Sales across the videogame industry have weakened this year after a record performance in 2008 on the back of several big titles. Console sales slid this year amid a dearth of blockbuster games, prompting console makers to drop prices.

Last month, GameStop reported its fiscal third-quarter earnings rose 12%, beating analysts' forecasts. It also projected a "solid" fourth quarter, based on strong sales from big-name games released last month such as "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2" and "New Super Mario Bros."

Suntrust Robinson Humphrey analyst David Magee said he believes GameStop is benefiting from its value offers, including its trade-in model, expanded assortment and better service.

"Moreover, the big games released in November appealed to hardcore gamers and GameStop typically enjoys a high share of these types of titles," Magee said.

He added he would recommend buying shares at the depressed levels.

Sentiment : Strong Buy