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Exchange-Traded Funds Guide

2026 Top ETFs Guide: The 2025 Performance of the 50 Largest ETFs

Largest ETFs still held by Vanguard and BlackRock in 2025.

by AAII Staff | February 2026

Featured Tickers:

Vanguard S&P 500 ETF (VOO) is the largest ETF, with total assets of $833.2 billion, up from $583.7 billion in 2024. Total assets for the second-largest ETF, iShares Core S&P 500 ETF (IVV), increased from $585.7 billion at the end of 2024 to $760.6 billion. SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (SPY) is now the third-largest ETF. It is also the oldest. The ETF has $712.1 billion in assets, compared to $623.8 billion at the end of 2024. Both Vanguard S&P 500 and iShares Core S&P 500 have expense ratios of 0.03%, versus 0.09% for SPDR S&P 500. The three largest ETFs represent 34% of shareholder assets for the top 50 ETFs.

BlackRock’s iShares and Vanguard account for the largest portion of the 50 ETFs listed in Table 3, with 38 ETFs between the two companies. Thirty-seven of the 50 largest ETFs on the 2024 list were also either iShares or Vanguard funds.

Table 3 Performance of the 50 Largest ETFs

Download the Excel spreadsheet of Table 3.

This article is part of the 2026 Top ETFs Guide. 

Discussion

B P from NV posted 6 months ago:

My question: how many etf's or mutual funds have consistently beaten an etf 500 based fund (e.g. voo, spy etal) over the latest ten year period?


ROBERT A from NC posted 6 months ago:

BP, you can look at the 10-year return column in the table above and identify some of them. QQQ, VUG, IWF, VGT (one of my biggest holdings and the top 10-year performer in the table), XLK, IVW, and SCHG (my second-biggest holding). But look at the 10-year performances of the bond funds. Yikes! Makes me glad to be a 100% equities holder! I wish AAII would provide 10-year return rankings for everything. I'd find that much more informative and helpful.


VICTOR S from NC posted 6 months ago:

I agree with Robert A's sentiment. As a follower of the late Louis Rukeyser's Wall Street Week show, I have never been too interested in owning bonds in general (I seem to recall he referred to bond buyers as ghouls). Interest income funds, money market funds, credit union accounts, CDs, and treasury bills are good places to park money for the short term bucket, leaving equities for long term growth.


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