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posted on Oct. 28, 2025 at 9:00 amOct 28, 2025

Middle East app marketers double down on UA, AI as GCC growth outpaces global benchmarks

posted on Oct. 28, 2025 at 9:00 amOct 28, 2025

New research from Bidease and Sensor Tower reveals how app marketers are capturing exceptional growth in the Middle East's booming app economy.

Bidease app marketers

The Middle East mobile app economy is pulling ahead of global benchmarks, and the gap is widening.

While worldwide app downloads grew just 0.5 per cent year-over-year in the second quarter of 2025 (Q2 2025), the GCC region surged ahead at 2.6 per cent.

In-app purchases reached $700m, up 20 per cent year-over-year, with the UAE leading revenue growth at 26 per cent. Time spent in apps crossed 20 billion hours in the first half of 2025.

GCC app economy outpaces global growth.

Behind this outperformance is a fundamental shift in how marketing teams operate. Artificial intelligence (AI) is in production across creativ

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Tags:ad creative AI App app downloads app growth Artificial Intelligence Bidease Brand budget allocation Budgets campaign optimisation cost per acquisition CPA creative automation creative velocity creative workflows discounts GCC global benchmarkes growth in app purchases Marketers Middle East outperformance personalisation Production retention Sensor Tower Shy Rahimi The 2025 Middle East App Growth Report time spent in apps UA user acquisition

the authorAnup Oommen

Anup Oommen is the Editor of Campaign Middle East at Motivate Media Group, a well-reputed moderator, and a multiple award-winning journalist with more than 15 years of experience at some of the most reputable and credible global news organisations, including Reuters, CNN, and Motivate Media Group. As the Editor of Campaign Middle East, Anup heads market-leading coverage of advertising, media, marketing, PR, events and experiential, digital, the wider creative industries, and more, through the brand’s digital, print, events, directories, podcast and video verticals. As such he’s a key stakeholder in the Campaign Global brand, the world’s leading authority for the advertising, marketing and media industries, which was first published in the UK in 1968.