Hedges shorted it (borrowed many shares, sold them expecting them to tank because brick and mortar game shops in this day and age would hemorrhage money)

They were really fucking with it and making all sorta of derivatives, so people realized if they bought enough shares, when hedges had to return the shares they borrowed, there'd be nowhere near enough available and price would skyrocket.

They've been manipulating the market since, including disabling a "buy" option and only allowing people to sell their shares so prices would drop and hedge funds could cover their shorts.

But people kept holding and buying whenever possible. Hedges had to take loans/extensions/dump other assets to cover (I suspect many of the crypto sell offs were for this reason).

By holding and buying up more, users are creating a ton of pressure and the market tricks can only go so far. The idea is that when it all gives, true price discovery will finally show.

Much like how the metals markets are manipulated. Silver and gold are far below what they should be due to COMEX tricks and the selling of the same metals in unallocated vaults to multiple buyers who never demand delivery.

The same 1000 oz bar of silver may have 100 owners and no odd ever demands delivery so the metals banks and exchanges keep reselling it to keep prices down.

Now, many MANY people have been demanding delivery and the banks are losing the metals that they love to play tricks with.

This is a VERY oversimplified explanation.