SensorTowerInside the 2025 Middle East App Growth Report: Bidease x Sensor Tower
Summary
The Middle East's app economy is outpacing global growth, as shown in the 2025 Middle East App Growth Report by Sensor Tower and Bidease. Across the GCC, downloads grew 2.6% YoY versus 0.5% globally, while IAP revenue jumped 20% to $700 million, with the UAE leading at 26% growth. Users spent 200 billion hours on apps in H1 2025.
Marketers are keeping pace: nearly 80% refresh creatives weekly, often using GenAI tools. However, 52% cite saturation as top challenge, driving adoption of programmatic buying and DSPs. AI is key: 64% use it for ad generation, 53% for personalization, 47% for budget allocation, and 40% for campaign optimization.
Success hinges on speed, creativity, and data-driven strategy.
Analyst Note
What’s notable here is how the GCC’s mobile growth is decoupling from global trends—downloads up 2.6% YoY versus 0.5% globally, with IAP revenue surging 20% to $700M. For UA teams, this signals a rare pocket of high-growth opportunity, but the article’s own data shows saturation is the top challenge for 52% of marketers. The key implication is that scale now requires not just spend but speed and differentiation: 80% of marketers refresh creatives weekly, and programmatic buying via DSPs is rising as a direct response to saturation.
The competitive angle is AI, which two-thirds of marketers already use for ad generation and half for personalization. For ad ops professionals, this means the bar for campaign efficiency is being reset—teams that don’t integrate AI into creative iteration and budget allocation risk falling behind even in a growing market. The 200 billion hours of app engagement in H1 2025 also suggest deep user stickiness, making IAP strategy a more viable lever than pure ad monetization for many categories.
Timing matters: this report captures H1 2025 data, so these trends are current, not speculative. The practical takeaway is that ad ops must align with UA teams to test AI-driven creative refreshes at weekly cadences and evaluate DSP partnerships that offer regional scale without sacrificing targeting precision.
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