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See the Incredible Returns If You Invested in 10 of the Top Performing Stocks Over the Last 5 Years (Including GameStop)

June 9, 2025

3 min Read

Written by Vance Cariaga

Edited by Zuri Anderson

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Volatility is no fun if you’re a stock market investor — and there’s been plenty of that so far in 2025. But it’s important to keep in mind that stocks in general have always produced strong returns over time.

The S&P 500 has risen by about 91% over the past five years alone, despite major headwinds ranging from COVID-19 and soaring inflation to President Donald Trump’s current tariff threats. The Dow is up about 62% over the same time frame, while the Nasdaq has roughly doubled in value.

Those are all very good returns, but they pale in comparison to the best performing stocks. If you were fortunate enough to invest in one of those, you would have seen your money rise more than 10-fold in the last half-decade.

Why Have These Stocks Performed So Well?

One reason some of the best performers rose so fast is that they traded at very low values five years ago — in some cases around $1 a share. Any spike in value would represent a major percentage gain.

An example is GameStop, the gaming and entertainment company whose stock could be purchased for a little more than $1 a share in June 2020. GameStop grabbed headlines in early 2021 when professional investors shorted the stock, figuring it would go down in value. But as EBSCO noted at the time, a “wave” of amateur investors started buying up shares and helped the stock soar by more than 1,500% in a matter of weeks.

Today, GameStop trades for around $30 a share. If you had invested $100 in the company in early June of 2020, your investment would now be worth more than $2,500.

Here’s a look at the massive returns you would have gotten by investing in 10 of the top performing stocks over the past five years. Each has risen by at least 1,000% and boasts a current price of roughly $30 a share or more.