The Gotham Goliath regained the passive flows lead last month, thanks a 53-percent boost in its inflows, according to the latest data from the folks at a publicly traded investment research company.

This article draws from Morningstar Direct data on August 2025 open-end mutual fund and ETF flows, excluding money-market funds and funds of funds. (The data also excludes other asset management products, like CITs and separate accounts*.) More specifically, this article focuses on the 150 firms (down by two month-over-month from July 2025 but unchanged year-over-year from August 2024) that offer passively managed, long-term mutual funds or ETFs.

BlackRock (including iShares) took the lead last month, thanks to an estimated $29.662 billion in net August 2025 passive inflows, up by $10.309 billion M/M from July 2025 and up by $12.923 billion Y/Y from August 2024. Other big August 2025 passive inflows winners included:

Vanguard, $21.306 billion (up by $3.983 billion M/M, up by $2.352 billion Y/Y);

Fidelity, $8.014 billion (down by $1.661 billion M/M, up by $893 million Y/Y);

Invesco, $5.268 billion (up by $2.826 billion M/M, up by $2.398 billion Y/Y); and

State Street's SSIM (fka SSGA), $4.224 billion (down by $16.25 billion M/M, up by $7.529 billion Y/Y).

On the flip side, ProShares and ProFunds took the outflows lead last month, thanks to an estimated $2.523 billion in net August 2025 passive outflows, up by $1.844 billion M/M from July 2025 and up by $2.288 billion Y/Y from August 2024. Other big August 2025 passive outflows sufferers included:

Rafferty's Direxion, $2.495 billion (up by $64 million M/M, up by $2.277 billion Y/Y);

Pacer, $819 million (down by $222 million M/M, up by $813 million Y/Y);

21Shares, $621 million (an $823-million net flows drop M/M, up by $363 million Y/Y); and

Jackson, $608 million (down by $158 million M/M, down by $119 million Y/Y).

Overall, passive funds brought in a combined $70.562 billion in net August 2025 inflows (down by $879 million M/M, up by $21.585 billion Y/Y). 54 percent (81) of the passive fund families brought in net passive inflows last month, down M/M from 55.9 percent but up Y/Y from 44 percent.

*This caveat is particularly important for large fund firms, many of which are big players in the 401(k) business, where collective investment trusts (CITs) and separately managed accounts (SMAs) are commonly used alternatives to traditional mutual funds. 

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