The exchange-traded fund industry closed 2025 with its strongest year ever for investor demand, gathering $2.37 trillion in net inflows as global assets surged to a record $19.85 trillion, according to a Tuesday ETFGI report.
December capped the historic year with $330.78 billion in net inflows, marking the 79th consecutive month of positive flows into ETFs, according to ETFGI. The 2025 inflow total eclipsed the previous record of $1.88 trillion set in 2024 and represented a 33.7% increase in total ETF assets from the $14.85 trillion recorded at the end of 2024.
Equity ETFs led the charge throughout the year, pulling in $1.14 trillion, slightly ahead of the $1.11 trillion gathered over the same period in 2024, according to ETFGI. December alone saw $211.15 billion flow into equity funds.
Fixed income ETFs demonstrated robust demand as well, attracting $458.63 billion for the year — a jump from the $315.24 billion recorded in 2024, according to ETFGI. The funds drew $50.95 billion in December.
Commodity ETFs posted a dramatic surge, gathering $106.65 billion in 2025 compared to just $3.91 billion over the same period in 2024, according to ETFGI. December inflows reached $16.32 billion.
2026 Starts Strong
Rather than cooling off after the record-setting year, ETF flows have accelerated in early 2026. The top funds so far this year are the Vanguard S&P 500 ETF (VOO ), which has already gathered $16.05 billion year-to-date, according to FactSet. The SPDR Portfolio S&P 500 ETF (SPYM) pulled in $4.95 billion.
“As advisors and investors put new money to work, ETFs have become the default operating system for portfolios,” said Todd Rosenbluth, head of research at VettaFi.
In December, the iShares Core S&P 500 ETF (IVV ) led all ETFs with $29.29 billion in inflows, according to ETFGI. The SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (SPY ) followed with $13.07 billion, while VOO gathered $12.54 billion.
Active ETFs continued gaining momentum throughout 2025 with $637.47 billion in net inflows, well above the $373.54 billion gathered during 2024, according to ETFGI. The funds attracted $56.23 billion in December.
The industry’s top three providers maintained their dominance. iShares led with $5.56 trillion in assets representing a 28% market share, followed by Vanguard with $4.25 trillion (21.4%) and State Street’s SPDR ETFs with $1.99 trillion (10%), according to ETFGI. Together, these providers accounted for 59.5% of global ETF assets, while each of the remaining 964 providers held less than 5% market share.
The global ETF industry comprised 15,807 products with 30,634 listings from 967 providers on 83 exchanges in 65 countries at the end of December, according to ETFGI.
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