ETFs shattered the record for flows last year as investors flocked to them in this bull market. To help you find where the momentum may be starting this year, here were the biggest trends within ETFs last year.
ETF flows smash records
A record 1,097 ETFs were launched in 2025, of which 912 were actively managed.1 At the current pace, the number of ETFs is projected to exceed mutual funds by early 2027. ETFs now represent 37% of combined ETF and mutual fund assets, continuing a steady multi-year increase.
Gluttonous demand in December helped ETF flows blow past the prior year. ETFs hauled in a massive $1.5 trillion in inflows in 2025, ending the year with $13.4 trillion in assets under management across more than 4,800 ETFs. December's record-breaking single month ETF inflows of $256 billion occurred despite a shakeout of some speculative parts of the market toward the end of last year.
Equity (e.g., stock) ETF flows once again outpaced fixed income (e.g., bond) flows, and growth strategy inflows ($141 billion) topped value strategy inflows ($93 billion).
Despite falling short of equity ETF flows, fixed income ETF flows had a banner year with $426 billion of inflows. Those were led by aggregate ($171 billion) and government ($110 billion) fixed income ETFs. The only fixed income category with net outflows for the year was bank loans.
Tech takes top sector billing again
Even though tech stocks came under some pressure near year-end, this sector was the runaway leader among sector-themed ETFs. Tech sector ETFs accrued $38 billion in inflows, far ahead of second place in this category, which was industrials. All but 3 of the 11 sectors saw their sector-themed ETFs experience inflows (energy, health care, and consumer staples saw outflows of $4 billion, $2 billion, and $1 billion respectively).
It will be interesting to see if some of these sector trends reverse at the outset of the year, given the relative underperformance of tech stocks as well as the outperformance of energy and consumer staples stocks in the early weeks of 2026.
A trend that has shown no signs of changing is the rapid growth of actively managed ETF offerings. Active equity ETFs which, in contrast to passively managed ETFs are not designed to track a benchmark, brought in $280 billion, up materially from $174 billion in 2024. With that said, passively managed ETFs still dominate flows between these 2 categories.
Looking for ETFs?
ETF flows can be a useful tool to help identify market trends, and to see where investors are broadly putting their money. If you are interested in investing in ETFs, Fidelity's ETF Screener can quickly sort through a lot of data based on the filtering selections you make.
You can search for ETFs using a variety of characteristics, like the fund's objectives, fundamentals, technicals, performance, volatility, trading characteristics, tax considerations, and analyst ratings.