September 03, 2025: Histria Books is pleased to announce the release of the paperback edition of Power to the Players: The Real GameStop Story and Why It’s Only Getting Started by Rob Smat. This book is published by Histria Perspectives, an imprint of Histria Books dedicated to outstanding works of non-fiction in a variety of fields.
Prepare yourself for the ultimate exposé of the retail trading revolution.
Witness firsthand the real and utterly ludicrous hivemind that brought Wall Street to its knees in January 2021 and discover why GameStop was only the beginning of an even more unprecedented retail contagion—one that will challenge everything you think you know about our markets all over again.
If the meme mania of 2021 drew blood from Wall Street, what follows is the Shakespearean realization that Reddit’s blade was, in fact, poisoned. In a digital world where information is frequently deleted, revised, and buried, accurately piecing together events is nearly impossible. While other authors and journalists have understandably struggled, Rob Smat offers a clear and unfiltered account, having witnessed every twist of the GameStop phenomenon firsthand.
Power to the Players is as much an unabridged history of the GameStop “sneeze” as it is a roadmap of how retail traders regrouped when everyone else thought the story had ended in calamity. The truest of diamond hands never sold, and their power has only grown stronger since. Before, Redditors were merely a nuisance to the status quo. Now, they’re poised to upend it completely.
Peruvian Bull, Financial Analyst calls it “A truly monumental tale of retail investors and their battle against the Goliaths of modern American finance. The story is far from over.”
Rob Smat is a writer and director of feature films, including his debut The Last Whistle (2019), which made him one of the youngest directors with a film on Netflix. Rob’s second published book, The Wedding March, was released in 2023. Outside of books, film, and TV, Rob is an avid fantasy football player, scotch enthusiast, Halo fan, disc golfer, and father.
Power to the Players by Rob Smat, 262 pp., ISBN 978-1-59211-574-7, is available at HistriaBooks.com and from all major book retailers. The book is also available in eBook, and hardcover. Titles published under the various imprints of Histria Books are distributed worldwide by the Independent Publishers Group (IPG).
