Dave & Buster’s Stock Plunges After a Surprise Loss

Dave & Buster’s Stock Plunges After a Surprise Loss

Tue, September 15, 2026 at 5:28 PM GMT+3 1 min read

• PLAY 0.00%

Key Takeaways

• Dave & Buster's shares tumbled Tuesday after the company reported a surprise quarterly loss.

• The company's revenue fell short of expectations, with arcade game sales declining 9% year-over-year.

Shares of Dave & Buster's Entertainment are tumbling after the restaurant and arcade operator posted a surprise loss.

Shares of Dave & Buster's (PLAY) were down nearly 13% in recent trading to $7.42, their lowest point since early 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic upended the company's business model.

Dave & Buster's late yesterday reported an adjusted loss of 27 cents per share for the second quarter, when analysts were looking for a profit of 22 cents per share. Its revenue came in at $544.1 million, down 2% year-over-year and below the Visible Alpha consensus of $556.8 million.

Entertainment revenue, the money Dave & Buster's makes from its arcade games, fell 9% year-over-year, while costs rose as the company invested in remodeling stores and opening new ones.

The company has warned over the last year that inflation worries are hampering its ability to return to sales growth. Last month, the company announced that then-CEO Tarun Lal was retiring after just a year in the top job, with CFO Darin Harper succeeding him.

With Tuesday's slump, Dave & Buster's shares are down more than 50% since the start of the year, and nearly 70% in the last 12 months.

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