The global ETF industry gathered US$330.8 billion in net inflows in December, bringing annual inflows in 2025 to a record high of US$2.4 trillion, London-based consultancy ETFGI said in a report released Tuesday.
Assets invested in the products also hit a record high of US$19.9 trillion by year-end, rising from US$14.9 trillion, or by 33.7%, on a year-over-year basis.
The global ETF industry capped off 2025 with a total of 15,807 products globally, with 30,634 listings from 967 providers. These funds were listed across 83 exchanges in 65 countries.
December was also the 79th consecutive month during which ETFs registered net inflows, ETFGI said.
Flows by fund type
Equity ETFs dominated the net inflows in December, pulling in US$211.2 billion. This brought full-year net inflows for the asset class to US$1.14 trillion, “slightly ahead of the US$1.11 trillion gathered over the same period in 2024,” the report noted.
Fixed-income ETFs saw “robust demand” too. They recorded US$51 billion in net inflows during the month and finished 2025 with US$458.6 billion. By comparison, they recorded US$315.2 billion in net inflows in 2024.
Commodity ETFs gathered US$16.3 billion in December, bringing 2025 net inflows to US$106.7 billion. This was “a dramatic increase” compared to the US$3.91 billion the funds recorded in annual net inflows the year prior, ETFGI said. Physically backed gold ETFs were a major contributor to these gains. They posted their largest annual inflows on record “as the gold price delivered its strongest performance since 1979,” a recent report from the World Gold Council said.
Active ETFs, meanwhile, received US$56.23 billion during the final month of 2025, bringing full-year net inflows for these funds to US$637.47 billion. This was a jump from US$373.54 billion in annual net inflows recorded in 2024.
Top providers
The report also analyzed the prevailing role of the top providers in the ETF industry.
“Substantial inflows can be attributed to the top 20 ETFs by net new assets,” it said, noting these funds collectively gathered US$117.6 billion in December. The largest net inflows went to the iShares Core S&P 500 ETF. That fund gathered US$29.3 billion alone.
By the end of 2025, BlackRock’s iShares business maintained its leading spot in the global ETF industry with US$5.6 trillion in assets (28% market share).
Vanguard ranked second with US$4.3 trillion (21.4% share) and State Street Corp.’s SPDR ETFs ranked third with US$2 trillion (10% share), the report noted.
Altogether, these three providers accounted for 59.5% of global ETF assets under management by the end of 2025. Meanwhile, the other 964 providers held less than a 5% market share.