2 Monster Stocks to Buy for the Next 10 Years

Finding companies with strong momentum and a clear competitive edge is one of the best ways to identify potential long-term winners. Duolingo (NASDAQ: DUOL) and Take-Two Interactive (NASDAQ: TTWO) both fit that profile.

Each company has momentum going in its favor and still has an attractive long-term opportunity. Here's why both look like compelling buy-and-hold investments for the next decade.

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1. Duolingo

Duolingo is a popular language-learning app, with courses also in chess, music, and math, and it recently reached 58 million daily active users. The stock is down about 74% from its prior peak after management shifted its priority from revenue growth to user growth. That resulted in revenue growth slowing from a 39% increase in 2025 to just 18% year over year in the second quarter of 2026.

The stock's sell-off, however, creates an attractive setup for patient investors. The strategic shift is about long-term value creation: retaining more users today can build a much larger business over time.

Management is still targeting 100 million daily active users by 2028, which would set the stage for meaningfully higher revenue and earnings. The company's 11.5% second-quarter operating margin shows a profitable business model built around getting users to sign up for a subscription that unlocks additional features. It just needs more of them.

Duolingo attracts and keeps users with a simple, gamified interface that makes learning feel like playing a game. It also uses data and feedback from its large user base to continuously refine the product and improve monetization -- an advantage that's easy to miss but hard to replicate.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is another lever. Duolingo is using open-source models to lower costs while expanding features like conversation practice in its language courses. As AI improves, Duolingo is continually adding more value to users while driving down costs. This cycle of lowering costs and reinvesting the savings into better features can be a powerful driver of user growth over time.

Investors should still watch for risks. There is potential for new entrants using AI to increase competition. If daily active user growth begins to slow enough to put the company off track of reaching its user target, that would be a valid reason to reconsider the investment thesis.

Still, continuing to grow daily users at high rates could translate into a larger and more valuable business over the next decade. The stock trades at a reasonable forward price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of 22, setting up the potential for excellent returns.

2. Take-Two Interactive

Take-Two's Grand Theft Auto (GTA) V sold 230 million copies since launching in 2013, and the franchise has sold 475 million copies across all versions over the last few decades. With the next installment slated for a November release, the series could continue to drive the company's momentum. The stock has delivered a market-beating 443% cumulative return over the past 10 years, and analysts expect earnings to grow at an annualized rate of 27% in the coming years.

Take-Two's Rockstar Games, the studio behind GTA, shared an extended look of GTA VI on Netflix on Aug. 27. Landing that kind of showcase highlights the franchise's growing audience.

What makes these games attractive to investors is that they can generate revenue long after the initial purchase. That shows up in Take-Two's recurrent consumer spending, which includes in-game purchases and advertising. In fiscal 2026 (which ended in March), recurrent spending grew 16% year over year to $5.2 billion, making up roughly three-quarters of the business.

Beyond its release slate, management also sees room to expand internationally, where some regions are still underrepresented. Take-Two is aiming to grow its presence in Latin America, the Middle East, and Asia, with a long-term goal of making international revenue the majority of total revenue within 10 years.

Of course, new releases carry risk. Even with what management calls an "exceptional start" to GTA VI pre-orders, launch issues like bugs or glitches can hurt reviews and disrupt early sales momentum. That's simply the nature of making games.

The long-term upside is worth considering a small position ahead of the new GTA release. The stock trades at a forward P/E of 33, which isn't cheap, but that valuation can still deliver market-beating returns over the next decade if Take-Two executes on its pipeline and grows earnings in line with Wall Street's expectations.

John Ballard has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Duolingo, Netflix, and Take-Two Interactive Software. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.