The UAE Creator Economy Is Set to Hit Dh1.8 Billion by 2026 Through Gaming and Streaming

Gulf News is putting a hard number on a shift creators across the region have already felt in the grind: the UAE’s creator economy is projected to approach Dh1.8 billion in revenue in 2026, with gaming, livestreaming and social commerce all pushing the meta forward. This is not just the usual influencer-economy victory lap — it is a reminder that the stream, the VOD and the clip folder are increasingly the product, not leftover debris after a broadcast.

For livestreamers especially, the signal is pretty loud. A scene once treated as a side quest is becoming a more structured professional ecosystem, and the people who can turn a community into repeatable content — without nuking their own workflow — are best placed for the next phase.

Live content is no longer the niche lane

The report also says livestreaming audiences across the Middle East and North Africa have grown fivefold over four years, while viewing hours have climbed sharply.

That matters because gaming and streaming do not run on a neat post-and-log-off schedule. Live creators are dealing with broadcasts, chat, highlights, sponsor integrations, clips for short-form feeds and the eternally hungry algorithm — all while their W/L community expects them to be everywhere at once.

The new growth story is not simply “go live and farm views.” It is about whether a creator can make one session travel: a stream becomes clips, clips become discoverability, discoverability feeds subscriptions, brand work or direct sales. In that loop, a strong archive can keep working long after chat has moved on to the next bit.

The archive has become part of the bag

The report’s most useful point is also the least glamorous one: content libraries are piling up fast. Raw footage, stream recordings, edits, graphics and older uploads can become a serious operational mess — especially as creators work in higher resolution and use AI-assisted production.

But Gulf News frames that pile of files as an asset. Previous content can be repurposed across platforms, reused for campaigns or licensing, and cut from long-form into short-form. Creators are also beginning to use their own libraries in AI-driven workflows to generate new assets and speed up production, according to the report.

For the streaming crowd, that means the “I’ll sort my VODs later” approach is starting to look risky. Losing footage is not only a tech headache; it can mean losing a future clip, a sponsor-ready moment or a format that might have had a second life. The creator who keeps their files searchable and accessible is quietly building a catalogue while everyone else is malding over a missed trend.

Social commerce raises the stakes

Gulf News says 73% of consumers in the UAE and Saudi Arabia made a purchase through social media in the past year. That figure helps explain why creators are moving beyond awareness campaigns and into a more direct commerce role.

For gaming creators, there is a clear upside — tighter links between community attention and monetization. There is also the familiar platform-era tension. More revenue routes can mean more pressure to be constantly on, constantly selling and constantly feeding the content machine, even when the chat gets weirdly parasocial or the creator clearly needs to log off.

The number to watch is not only Dh1.8 billion. It is whether the growing ecosystem gives livestreamers durable ways to own and reuse their work — or simply makes the always-online grind more intense.