Region: Global | Date: October 30, 2026
The World Out of Home Organization has published its Global Out of Home Expenditure Report 2026, the industry’s most comprehensive measure of outdoor advertising investment worldwide. The report captures out-of-home (OOH) expenditure across 2025 and sets out forecasts for 2026, drawing on more than 100 individual responses covering 85 unique territories that together account for roughly 95% of global GDP.
According to the report, global OOH expenditure reached $54.2 billion, with spend forecast to rise further in 2026 as the medium continues to benefit from economic recovery and the expansion of digital inventory. Digital Out of Home (DOOH) remains the primary engine of growth: global DOOH expenditure rose to $25.5 billion in 2025, equivalent to approximately 47% of all OOH revenues. The report forecasts that DOOH will account for 49% of OOH spend in 2026, reaching about $28 billion and poised to overtake static formats for the first time.
The shift toward digital is uneven across regions. APAC leads the way, with DOOH representing 55.7% of OOH revenues in the region, ahead of Europe at 41.3%, North America at 36.9%, Latin America at 27.7% and Africa at 18.0%. The figures illustrate how quickly digital adoption has advanced in Asian markets in particular, while other regions retain larger shares of traditional static inventory.
Programmatic trading of DOOH also took a significant step forward. Programmatically traded DOOH reached a reported $2.1 billion globally in 2025, representing 8.4% of total DOOH revenues. Because this activity is not yet captured consistently across all markets, WOO has launched an independently audited survey of the leading global supply-side platforms in partnership with PwC, aimed at establishing a reliable baseline for the programmatic segment going forward.
The report builds on a continuous data set running back to 2019, allowing the industry to track investment in OOH alongside local economic conditions and the continued digitization of the medium. WOO President Tom Goddard described the findings as “irrefutable evidence of a mature legacy medium making its way progressively in the digital age,” adding that the industry now has the data it needs to compete with other channels.
Industry observers note that the 2026 report arrives at a pivotal moment for the medium. With digital formats approaching parity with static inventory, the competitive dynamics of the sector are shifting: screen-based networks are commanding an increasing share of premium budgets, while operators of traditional formats are investing in digitization to defend their market position. The territorial breakdown also highlights the growing importance of emerging markets, where infrastructure investment, urbanization and rising consumer spending are creating fresh opportunities for outdoor media growth over the next planning cycle.
For media owners, the headline numbers reinforce the case for continued investment in digital infrastructure and programmatic connectivity. For agencies and advertisers, the data provide a global benchmark for planning, showing where digital out-of-home is growing fastest and where premium inventory is becoming available through automated channels. The report is available to WOO members and is expected to become a standard reference point in planning cycles for 2027.
Why it matters: The 2026 expenditure report confirms that DOOH is on the verge of becoming the majority format in global out-of-home advertising, and it gives the industry its first independently audited measure of the programmatic segment, a critical step for buyers demanding transparency.
Source: World Out of Home Organization
