Worldwide investment in out-of-home (OOH) advertising climbed sharply in 2025, underscoring the medium’s growing relevance in an increasingly digital-first advertising landscape as brands intensified spending on both traditional and digital outdoor platforms.

Fresh figures released in the World Out of Home Organisation’s (WOO) 2026 Global OOH Expenditure Report show that global OOH advertising spend reached $54.2 billion in 2025, representing a robust 15 percent increase over the previous year. The report also projects further expansion, with worldwide expenditure expected to rise to $56.4 billion in 2026.

The latest performance means outdoor advertising now accounts for 5.1 percent of total global advertising expenditure, reinforcing the medium’s growing importance as marketers continue searching for high-impact channels capable of reaching consumers in the physical world.

Drawing data from more than 100 industry submissions across 85 markets, covering approximately 95 percent of global GDP, the report paints a picture of an industry that has continued to evolve despite changing media consumption patterns.

It also builds on an ongoing global dataset that has tracked outdoor advertising investment, economic trends and digital transformation since 2019.

According to the findings, the Asia-Pacific region remained the undisputed engine of global OOH growth, generating $29.7 billion, or 55 percent of worldwide outdoor advertising expenditure.

North America followed with $10.3 billion, closely trailed by Europe at $10.2 billion, while Latin America contributed $2.9 billion and Africa accounted for $1.2 billion.

At the country level, China maintained its dominance as the world’s largest outdoor advertising market, attracting $18.2 billion in investment. The United States ranked second with $9.5 billion, while Japan, the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Brazil, South Korea, Australia and Italy completed the list of the world’s ten largest OOH markets.

Notably, Brazil, China and South Korea recorded some of the strongest increases in outdoor advertising’s share of total media expenditure, highlighting growing advertiser confidence in the medium despite broader economic uncertainty.

Meanwhile, digital out-of-home (DOOH) advertising continued to reshape the sector’s growth trajectory. Spending on digital outdoor formats surged to $25.5 billion in 2025, accounting for 47 percent of total global OOH revenue.

Furthermore, WOO forecasts digital outdoor investment will reach $28 billion in 2026, representing 49 percent of total OOH spending and placing the industry on the verge of a historic milestone where digital formats are expected to overtake static outdoor advertising for the first time.

Regional adoption of digital outdoor advertising also continued to accelerate. Asia-Pacific once again led the market, with digital formats contributing 55.7 percent of the region’s total outdoor advertising revenue.

Again, the report indicated that Europe followed at 41.3 percent, while North America recorded 36.9 percent. Latin America generated 27.7 percent, whereas Africa’s digital outdoor market accounted for 18 percent of total OOH revenue, signalling further room for growth across the continent.

In addition, programmatic digital out-of-home advertising maintained strong momentum as automated buying and real-time campaign delivery gained wider acceptance among advertisers. Global programmatic DOOH expenditure reached $2.1 billion in 2025, representing 8.4 percent of all digital outdoor revenue.

To improve transparency and establish more consistent industry benchmarks, the World Out of Home Organisation has commissioned an independently audited global survey of leading supply-side platforms (SSPs) in collaboration with PwC, with the initiative expected to provide a more comprehensive picture of programmatic trading across the sector.

Commenting on the report, WOO President Tom Goddard said the latest figures demonstrate that outdoor advertising has successfully evolved beyond its legacy status into a modern, digitally enabled medium capable of sustaining long-term growth.

According to him, the industry’s continued expansion provides compelling evidence that out-of-home advertising is adapting confidently to the digital era while strengthening its ability to meet future market demands and technological change.