Dubai Mall Tops UAE Consideration at 34.4%, YouGov 2026 Rankings Show

Dubai Mall holds a 34.4% Consideration score among UAE residents, nearly five points clear of Mall of the Emirates at 29.8%, according to YouGov's UAE and KSA mall rankings 2026. The data, drawn from YouGov BrandIndex and covering 1 October 2025 to 30 September 2026, tracks two measures: whether residents would consider visiting a mall, and Buzz (Net), the balance of positive and negative things they've heard about it in the past two weeks.

The gap after the top two is where the UAE picture gets interesting. Dubai Festival City Mall ranks third at 20.2% — 9.5 points behind Mall of the Emirates — followed by City Centre Deira (19.3%) and City Centre Mirdif (17.5%). Abu Dhabi Mall (16.7%), Dubai Marina Mall (16.6%), Yas Mall (16.3%), Dubai Hills Mall (15.3%) and Ibn Battuta (14.9%) complete the top 10. In short: two leaders, then a scrum.

What does Buzz add that Consideration doesn't?

Plenty, as it turns out. Dubai Mall again leads on Buzz (Net) at 39.6, with Mall of the Emirates close behind at 34.0. Dubai Festival City Mall sits third at 22.4, and from fourth to tenth, just 2.5 points separate the pack:

• City Centre Deira: 20.0
• Dubai Marina Mall: 19.4
• Yas Mall: 19.4
• Abu Dhabi Mall: 18.8
• City Centre Mirdif: 18.6
• Ibn Battuta: 18.6
• Dubai Hills Mall: 17.5

One operator deserves a note. Mall of the Emirates, City Centre Deira and City Centre Mirdif are all Majid Al Futtaim malls, giving the group three of the ten Buzz places. Portfolio depth, it seems, talks.

How competitive is Saudi Arabia's mall market?

Considerably tighter than the UAE's. Al Salam Mall leads KSA Consideration at 21.9%, followed by Red Sea Mall (21.7%) and Mall of Arabia (21.0%) — just 0.9 percentage points separate the three Jeddah destinations. Al Mamlaka (Kingdom Tower), Riyadh, sits fourth at 20.0%, with Riyadh Gallery at 19.9%.

Aziz Mall (18.7%) ranks sixth, and here's the curiosity: Dubai Mall places seventh at 17.6% — evidence, YouGov notes, that Saudi consumers consider destinations beyond Saudi Arabia itself. Faisaliyah Mall (16.8%), Al Rashid Mall (16.1%) and Granada Mall (15.3%) complete the top 10.

On Buzz, Al Salam Mall again leads at 19.8, but Al Mamlaka climbs from fourth in Consideration to second at 19.5, just ahead of Red Sea Mall at 19.4. Mall of Arabia (18.6) and Riyadh Gallery (17.8) stay prominent on both measures. The margins are slim: Al Salam Mall and Red Sea Mall differ by just 0.4 points.

The methodology, briefly

The rankings rest on nationally representative samples in each market, with minimum sample sizes of 6,468 for the UAE and 5,562 for KSA. Brands included were tracked for at least 365 days during the period. Consideration asks respondents: "When you are in the market next to visit, from which of the following would you consider visiting?" Buzz asks: "Over the past two weeks, which of the following venues have you heard something positive or negative about?" YouGov discloses that the analysis was conducted with the assistance of AI tools.

What does this change for marketers? The structural difference between the two markets matters. The UAE's top malls hold a distinct lead over the rest of the rankings, while KSA's leaders sit within a point of one another — meaning perception shifts in Saudi Arabia can reorder the leaderboard quickly, and mall operators there have everything to play for in 2027.