Hard Disk Drives Market Share & Trends [2033]

Hard Disk Drives Market Overview

The Hard Disk Drives Market size was valued at USD 19.62 million in 2024 and is expected to reach USD 23.28 million by 2033, growing at a CAGR of 1.92% from 2025 to 2033.

In the U.S. hard disk drive (HDD) market, the United States commands approximately 32 % of global HDD market share as of 2024, driven by its expansive data center infrastructure and enterprise demand.

The global hard disk drives (HDD) market remains sizable, with approximately 127 million units sold in 2023—down from 172 million in 2022, yet exabyte capacity grew by 42 percent year-over-year for high-capacity nearline drives from 2023 to 2024. In Q1 2024, total HDD shipments reached 29.7 million units—an increase from 28.9 million in Q4 2023—with exabytes shipped up about 23.2 percent quarter-over-quarter. Total unit shipments in Q2 2024 rose by 1 percent versus Q1 2024. In Q4 2023, capacity shipments were up 9.5 percent and unit volumes by just under 1 percent.

Industry technology has advanced storage density: 3.5‑inch HDD platters now reach 36 TB per drive (as of January 2025), and 2.5‑inch laptop drives hit up to 6 TB (May 2024). Prices have also followed long-term declines: quality‑adjusted enterprise storage prices dropped by roughly 30 percent per year between 2004–2009 and 22 percent annually from 2009–2014. Despite pressure from solid‑state technology, HDDs continue to dominate cost‑effective, high‑capacity storage, particularly in data‑center and enterprise applications. Manufacturers Seagate, Western Digital, and Toshiba now account for over 99 percent of production.

Key Findings

Market Size and Growth: Global Hard Disk Drives Market size was valued at USD 19.62 million in 2024, expected to reach USD 23.28 million by 2033, with a CAGR of 1.92% from 2025 to 2033.
Key Market Driver: Data center demand contributed to nearly 60% of overall hard disk drive shipments in the enterprise segment in recent years.
Major Market Restraint: Solid-state drive penetration in consumer electronics led to a 25% decline in personal HDD sales in the last five years.
Emerging Trends: Nearline HDD demand has grown by over 35% due to increasing cloud storage and long-term archival requirements.
Regional Leadership: One region accounted for approximately 32% of the global HDD consumption volume, driven by hyperscale infrastructure development.
Competitive Landscape: Three major manufacturers jointly control around 85% of the global hard disk drive supply chain in 2024.
Market Segmentation: Internal HDDs held 52%, SSDs 35%, and hybrid drives 13% of total storage shipments.
Recent Development: Implementation of new magnetic recording technologies has improved data density by roughly 60% in enterprise-grade HDDs.

Hard Disk Drives Market Trends

The hard disk drive (HDD) industry continues evolving markedly in 2023–2025, driven by substantial growth in large-scale data center deployments. Mass-capacity HDD shipments reached 104 exabytes in Q2 2024, rising from 89 exabytes in Q1 2024—an increase of 17% quarter-over-quarter. Further, in 2024, total HDD exabyte volume climbed by 49% compared to 2023. These figures highlight a pivotal trend: skyrocketing demand for storage capacity despite flat or declining unit shipments. The relevance of nearline and mass-capacity models is magnified by the fact that nearline HDDs alone contributed approximately 125 exabytes in shipments—around 36% of the global exabyte market—led by a 22% year-over-year increase in nearline capacity through 2024. IDC also reports a consistent HDD-to‑SSD installed capacity ratio of around 7:1 in both cloud and non-cloud data centers in 2023, signaling that HDDs remain six to seven times more prevalent by capacity. This ratio, underpinned by energy- and heat-assisted magnetic recording (e.g., HAMR, MAMR, ePMR), is crucial—new HDD installations are projected to reach 10 zetabytes (ZB) by 2027. Technological milestones drive capacity increases. 3.5-inch HDDs currently ship with up to 36 TB per drive (January 2025). Western Digital launched ePMR-based 11-disk platforms achieving 32 TB (October 2024). Moreover, Seagate began limited shipping of 40 TB HAMR Mozaic drives in mid‑2025, planning full-scale production in 2026.

Seagate’s roadmap projects 44 TB by 2027 and 50 TB by 2028, with eventual goals of 100 TB by 2030. Meanwhile, HDD price per byte continues to decline—an 11% annual decrease during 2010–2017, after even sharper drops earlier—maintaining HDDs’ cost advantage over SSDs at large scale. Demand drivers reflect the rise of AI, HPC, cloud, surveillance, and media workloads. Global data reached 147 ZB in 2024, projected to hit 291 ZB by 2027. As AI systems generate massive datasets, HDDs fulfill the need for scalable warm and cold storage, with Western Digital’s 32 TB and 26 TB ePMR drives targeting hyperscalers and enterprise users. Meanwhile, SSDs remain preferred for speed-critical consumer applications, but HDDs dominate where capacity and cost matter. Inventory cycles also stabilized: 2024 saw normalized cloud service provider inventories and increasing OEM purchases. This rejuvenated OEM demand contributes to a modest 1–2% annual increase in HDD unit shipments. Simultaneously, drive format mix is shifting—3.5″ units accounted for about 54.6% of total shipments in 2025—while 2.5″ applications support portable and laptop use with capacities up to 6 TB per drive.

Hard Disk Drives Market Dynamics

DRIVER

Surge in data center and cloud storage demand

Global data centers consumed over 104 exabytes of HDD capacity in Q2 2024—up from 89 exabytes in Q1 2024 (a 17 percent increase). Data volumes surged to approximately 147 zettabytes (ZB) in 2024, projected to exceed 291 ZB by 2027. IDC reports HDD-capacity installations are 6 to 7 times larger than SSD in cloud and non-cloud environments. Nearline HDDs alone accounted for around 125 exabytes—36 percent of total exabyte shipments—with year-over-year growth near 22 percent. These figures underscore that soaring demand for scalable, cost-effective storage is the primary market driver.

RESTRAINT

Intensifying SSD competition

SSDs shipped over 200 million units in 2016 and continue rising, reaching roughly 227 million in 2017. SSD market valuation reached $19.1 billion in 2023 and is projected at $55.1 billion by 2030. AI, HPC and consumer segments increasingly favor SSDs for speed‑critical workloads, challenging HDD share. Industry insiders say SSD capacity will quadruple over two years, eroding HDD cost advantage. Cloud data‑center SSD spending is expected to reach $32 billion by 2028 versus $22 billion for HDDs. This rapid SSD adoption limits HDD equilibrium by reducing the overall unit shipment and straining legacy use-cases.

OPPORTUNITY

Advanced recording technologies (HAMR, ePMR, MAMR)

3.5‑inch HDD capacities reached 36 TB by January 2025. Western Digital launched 11‑disk ePMR 32 TB drives in October 2024. Seagate shipped limited 40 TB HAMR drives in mid‑2025 and targets 44 TB in 2027, 50 TB in 2028, and 100 TB by 2030. HAMR uses a laser-based recording head able to pack magnetic “bits” much more densely. These innovations position HDDs to deliver high-volume storage at lower per-byte cost versus SSDs—IDC forecasts HDD will still cost around one-fifth of SSD per byte by 2028. The ability to develop petabyte-scale capacity and cost-efficiency opens significant opportunity for exascale and archival storage.

CHALLENGE

Maturing unit-demand and market consolidation

HDD unit shipments peaked at approximately 651 million in 2010 and dropped to around 166 million in 2022. The market has consolidated to just three manufacturers—Seagate, Western Digital, Toshiba—dominating over 99 percent of production. SAS HDD segment shrank from a $2.78 billion market in 2024 to a projected $2.34 billion by 2032. Competition within this small vendor set limits price flexibility and innovation incentives outside capacity growth. Meanwhile, Western Digital closed its Malaysian HDD plant in 2019 and spun off flash ops in 2024—reflecting a shift away from HDD. With unit volumes aging and consolidation high, the HDD market must balance scale with fresh innovation or face stagnation.

Hard Disk Drives Market Segmentation

The hard disk drives market is segmented by type and application, with distinct adoption patterns across consumer, enterprise, and industrial sectors. By type, the market includes internal hard disk drives, external hard disk drives, solid-state hybrid drives, and SSDs (for reference, although primarily compared). By application, use cases span from consumer electronics and IT services to enterprise data centers and cloud storage infrastructures. In 2024, internal drives accounted for approximately 48% of global shipments, while enterprise and cloud storage applications collectively drove over 60% of total exabyte demand, dominated by high-capacity nearline HDDs.

By Type

Internal Hard Disk Drives: dominate personal computing and OEM desktop/laptop assemblies. In 2024, 2.5-inch internal HDDs ranged between 500 GB and 6 TB, and 3.5-inch internal drives reached up to 22 TB for desktops. These drives contributed to nearly 48% of total HDD shipments. In Q2 2024, PC-based HDD shipments reached 14.1 million units, while notebook internal drives decreased slightly by 3.2% from Q1 2024. Internal drives are cost-effective and continue to serve gaming, creative workstations, and home data backups.
External Hard Disk Drives: serve portable storage, multimedia libraries, and backup applications. In 2023, the global shipment volume of external hard drives was estimated at over 60 million units, driven by rising remote work and digital media storage. Devices range between 1 TB to 20 TB, with USB 3.2 and Thunderbolt interfaces. By 2025, demand for external drives with higher throughput—above 250 MB/s—and shockproof enclosures has surged 14% year-on-year. External 2.5-inch HDDs accounted for about 35% of consumer sales.
Solid-State Hybrid Drives (SSHDs): integrate NAND flash and spinning media to offer fast boot times and large storage. Though hybrid drive adoption remains niche, they accounted for roughly 3% of HDD units shipped in 2024. Gamers and notebook OEMs deploy SSHDs offering 1–2 TB capacity plus 8–16 GB of SSD cache. Western Digital and Seagate SSHDs have experienced an average 7% year-over-year rise in demand in mid-tier notebooks as a cost-effective performance upgrade.
Solid-State Drives (for comparison): Though not part of the HDD category, SSDs influence buyer decisions. In 2024, SSDs surpassed 280 million units globally, influencing low-end HDD sales. Enterprise HDDs remain competitive beyond 20 TB capacities where SSDs are not cost-feasible. Average price-per-TB for SSDs remained 3.5–4× higher than that of enterprise HDDs.

By Application

Consumer Electronics: HDDs remain integral to gaming consoles, DVRs, and external backup storage. In 2024, over 70 million hard drives were integrated into consumer electronics. PlayStation and Xbox consoles deployed 1–2 TB drives, while high-end NAS and media systems used up to 16 TB. Surveillance systems use 24×7 endurance HDDs, accounting for over 25 million units annually.
Data Storage: Standalone HDD storage solutions—including RAID arrays, NAS, and DAS—made up 18% of HDD applications in 2024. Business-class NAS systems demand 8–22 TB drives, with RAID-capable firmware and vibration sensors. Data storage usage contributed over 110 exabytes to HDD consumption by mid‑2024.
IT Services: HDDs power IT infrastructure in SME and enterprise sectors. About 30% of server farms use HDDs for primary or archival storage. HDD usage in virtualization and backup services remains prevalent, with typical deployment ranging between 10–40 TB per rack unit.
Enterprise IT: nearline drives (7200 RPM, 6–12 Gbps) accounted for 62% of enterprise HDDs by volume in 2024. Leading firms deployed 18–22 TB HDDs in tiered storage arrays, with 2.5–3 million nearline drives shipped per quarter to hyperscalers like Amazon and Microsoft.
Cloud Storage: native workloads drove over 45% of total exabyte HDD demand in 2024. Data centers purchased over 100 million TB in capacity during the year, focusing on power-efficient, helium-filled 3.5-inch HDDs. Seagate’s Mozaic 3+ platform delivered 40 TB units tested by Amazon Web Services in 2025.

Hard Disk Drives Market Regional Outlook

The global hard disk drives market exhibits varied performance across regions, with Asia-Pacific, North America, and Europe being the top-consuming regions. North America led demand for enterprise nearline drives; Asia-Pacific remained dominant in OEM and consumer electronics integration, while Europe balanced data privacy infrastructure investments with data center storage needs. Middle East & Africa witnessed increasing surveillance HDD demand, especially in smart city projects and logistics.

North America

accounted for nearly 33% of total HDD capacity shipments in 2024. With over 5,375 data centers in the U.S. alone and average storage consumption of 1.2 petabytes per center per year, the region remains a nearline HDD hotspot. Seagate and Western Digital command over 80% of the local market. In Q2 2024, North American hyperscalers purchased more than 22 million TB of storage. Demand for HAMR-enabled 40 TB drives was strongest in the U.S. in mid-2025.

Europe

holds around 21% market share by unit volume. Germany, France, and the UK lead with increasing investments in private cloud infrastructure and GDPR-compliant data storage. In 2024, over 150 data centers in Germany alone added more than 3.1 exabytes of new HDD capacity. EU-funded digital sovereignty initiatives increased demand for European-sourced drives. Surveillance HDD demand rose 12% in 2023–2024 due to public security programs in France and Spain.

Asia-Pacific

dominates global HDD production and consumption. China, Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan host major assembly and integration plants. China shipped over 40 million HDD units in 2024, with high demand from surveillance (30%), industrial IoT (18%), and telecom (22%) sectors. Japan remains pivotal with Toshiba and Fujitsu contributing over 12% of global production. South Korea’s OEM segment, including Samsung and LG, integrated HDDs into 28 million devices in 2024. The APAC region also experienced a 9% rise in consumer HDD demand year-on-year.

Middle East & Africa

Though smaller in volume, the MEA region showed increasing adoption of HDDs in logistics, smart city infrastructure, and public surveillance. In 2024, the UAE imported 3.4 million HDD units—up 8% from 2023—while South Africa led in cloud backup service expansion. Africa’s data localization push raised demand for in-country storage hubs, with HDD-based cold storage centers growing 15% year-over-year in 2024.

Investment Analysis and Opportunities

Investment in the hard disk drive (HDD) market is driven by exponential data growth and ongoing cost-per-terabyte advantages. In 2024, global HDD unit shipments rose roughly 2 percent, while shipped capacity increased by approximately 39 percent year-over-year—signals that capacity-driven investments remain lucrative. IDC projects that North America will hold nearly 33.2 percent market share in 2025, accounting for over 1 337 exabytes shipped—boosting infrastructure spending and stimulating unit-level investments. Hyperscalers and cloud providers continue to place large-scale orders. Seagate’s mass-capacity drives, representing around 83 percent of HDD sales, point to centralized data-center capital deployment. The U.S. EPA program for sustainable electronics also incentivizes manufacturers to invest in greener HDD production, bolstering investment in recycling and energy-efficient manufacturing. Asia‑Pacific represents another investment frontier: HDD unit shipments reached over 40 million in China in 2024, with industrial IoT and telecom contributing 22 percent to total regional HDD usage. Japan and Taiwan hold a combined 12 percent of global HDD production. Investors can target facility expansions or R&D hubs in these economies where labor and manufacturing efficiencies remain high.

Future investments are expected in advanced recording technologies such as HAMR, ePMR, MAMR, and OptiNAND. Seagate shipped limited 40 TB HAMR samples in mid‑2025; full-scale production is planned in H1 2026. Western Digital’s ePMR 32 TB launch in late 2024 and Toshiba’s progress with MAMR offer diversified bets. These are critical R&D focal points for future obsolescence resistance. Additionally, strategic investments are emerging in circular economy initiatives. In April 2025, Western Digital and Microsoft launched a large-scale rare-earth recovery program for HDDs in the U.S., presenting long-term value in sustainable supply chains. Investors could tap into recycling technologies to monetize end-of-life HDD materials. Potential investment opportunities lie in power-efficient data-center drives. As AI and HPC workloads grow, demand for energy-optimized storage is rising. Seagate projects 100 TB drives by 2030, focusing on reduced power per terabyte. Investing in startups or components that support lower power and higher capacity could capture emerging share as energy consumption becomes a critical KPI.

New Product Development

Manufacturers are launching several high-capacity HDDs and related ecosystem enhancements. In early 2025, Seagate began shipping 36 TB Exos Mozaic 3+ HAMR drives using ten-glass-platter assemblies, marking a 20 percent capacity increase over previous generation 30 TB drives. That same lineup includes 40 TB HAMR Mozaic 4+ prototypes—10 × 4 TB platters—being tested for data-center qualification; full-scale production is scheduled for first half of 2026. Seagate's roadmap targets 44 TB in 2027 and 50 TB by 2028, charting a path toward 100 TB capacity by 2030—via higher platter density (up to 5 TB per platter) and HAMR scaling. Such drives aim to provide up to 30 percent better power-per-TB efficiency compared to existing platforms, appealing to hyperscale and HPC users. Western Digital expanded its ePMR line with an 11‑disk, 32 TB drive in late 2024, offering an alternative high-capacity technology with immediate integration potential for enterprise buyers. WD also continues work on OptiNAND architectures to merge embedded flash with disk media, offering faster onboard metadata handling and improved cache performance without full HAMR adoption.

Toshiba progressed with MAMR technology, achieving over 20 TB per platter and targeting 35 TB platform releases pre‑2026. Its roadmap includes combining MAMR’s microwave-assisted field with localized heating methods, enabling plating up to the 40 TB range in the near future. On the accessory front, external portable HDD units are expanding into ruggedized formats. External disk system market data shows global external HDD revenues grew from roughly US$ 47.4 billion in 2024 to US$ 51.1 billion in 2025, with continued growth expected in backup and remote media sectors. In addition, HDD-enhanced IT services are seeing firmware and reliability improvements. Dual-actuator technology—like Seagate’s Mach.2—is advancing with adaptive vibration cancellation designs, which lower latency and improve drift resilience in data-center racks. SMART log intelligence systems with AI-driven failure prediction—TFBEST models—are being embedded into enterprise storage arrays to reduce disk downtime across tens of thousands of drives.

Five Recent Developments

Seagate launches 32 TB Exos Mozaic 3+ HAMR HDDs mid‑2024—using ten platters, these drives offer 33 percent more capacity than previous 24 TB models.
Western Digital introduces 11‑disk ePMR 32 TB enterprise drive in October 2024—enhancing capacity without HAMR complexity.
Toshiba advances MAMR drives in late 2024, targeting 35 TB platforms and planning MR/MI hybrid head architecture.
Seagate ships limited 40 TB HAMR Mozaic 4+ samples in mid‑2025, paving way for data center volume orders with full production slated for early 2026.
Western Digital and Microsoft launch rare-earth recovery program in April 2025—capturing critical materials from retired HDDs at scale with eco-chemistry processing.

Report Coverage of Hard Disk Drives Market

This comprehensive report covers 12 detailed chapters and over 400 pages, examining historical data from 2019–2024 and projection scenarios through 2032. It dissects global market evolution across unit shipments, capacity volumes, form-factor distribution, and technology transitions. The report quantifies HDD dynamics: total unit demand peaked at 651 million units in 2010, declined to 166 million by 2022, then stabilized with Q1 2024 unit shipments rising ~2 percent and exabyte volume growing ~39 percent. Capacity-focused chapter sections span technologies: PMR, SMR, ePMR, HAMR, MAMR, OptiNAND. Each technology’s performance is evaluated using metrics such as areal density (TB/platter), exabyte shipments (104 EB in Q2 2024), and field-readiness timelines (40 TB HAMR in 2026+). New R&D investments (dual-actuator, HAMR lasers) are detailed with cost-per-byte comparisons across platforms.

The report offers a company profile section with detailed analysis of Seagate, Western Digital, Toshiba, and other key OEMs. It lists R&D spend, headcount in HDD-specific labs, and platform pipelines (e.g., Seagate’s 100 TB roadmap). Seagate’s acquisition of Intevac for US$ 119 million in February 2025 is documented. Capital investment trends—like WD spinning off flash and plant closures—are also disclosed. Further, application trends are analyzed: consumer backups (~70 million HDDs deployed), surveillance (~25 million units), enterprise IT (~62 percent of enterprise HDD volume), and cloud storage (~45 percent of total exabyte demand). Supply chain and regulatory context include environmental certification efforts, such as those under U.S. EPA. The recent rare-earth recycling initiative highlights anticipated gains in material reuse and lower raw material risk. To wrap up, this report delivers a holistic view of the HDD market—covering technology, region, application, corporate strategy, investment, supply chain, and regulatory factors—based on rigorously analyzed data points, exabyte flows, and unit trends through 2025 and beyond.