SPY on Track for Worst Year of Outflows
Once the undisputed king of ETFs, SPY is losing ground fast.
The SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (SPY), the first U.S. ETF launched back in 1993 and the world’s largest until recently, is having one of its roughest years ever in terms of investor flows.
According to ETF.com’s fund flows tool powered by FactSet, investors have pulled $30.2 billion from SPY so far in 2025. If the year ended today, that would mark its second-largest annual outflow, trailing only the $32.3 billion pulled in 2015.
The reversal comes after a strong run. SPY gathered a record $52 billion in 2023, followed by $16.5 billion in 2024. But this year, despite the S&P 500 index itself surging to record highs, flows have gone the other way.
Adding insult to injury, SPY was dethroned earlier this year as the world’s largest ETF. The Vanguard S&P 500 ETF (VOO) now holds $732 billion in assets under management, nearly $80 billion more than SPY. VOO has pulled in $82 billion in 2025 inflows already, putting it on pace to potentially cross the $100 billion mark for the second straight year.
Even the iShares Core S&P 500 ETF (IVV) has leapfrogged SPY in assets this year. More than $17 billion of inflows has pushed IVV’s AUM to about $4 billion above SPY.
Both VOO and IVV charge just 0.03% annually, versus SPY’s 0.09%, and neither faces SPY’s structural limitations as a unit investment trust.
Still, SPY isn’t going anywhere. It remains the most actively traded ETF in the world, with unmatched daily volume and the deepest options market of any fund.
That trading appeal is also likely behind this year’s turbulence. The bulk of SPY’s redemptions occurred in the first quarter, when markets were shaky. Inflows and outflows since then have largely netted out.
