Comprehensive Snapshot for Hard Disk Drive (HDD) Market, Including Country and Segment Analysis in Brief.
Industry: Healthcare
Delivery Timelines: Please Contact Sales
Published Date: May-2025
Format: PPT*, PDF, EXCEL
Number of Pages: 202
ID: PMRREP35308
The global Hard Disk Drive (HDD) market size is predicted to reach US$ 63.7 Bn in 2032 from US$ 41.7 Bn in 2025. It will likely witness a CAGR of around 6.3% in the forecast period between 2025 and 2032.
Despite the ongoing inclination of consumers toward flash storage and solid-state drives, the field of HDDs continues to exhibit resilience, specifically in hyperscale and enterprise environments. This is mainly pushed by rising demand for high-capacity storage solutions in cloud infrastructure and data centers.
Seagate reported HDD revenue of US$ 1.727 Bn in calendar Q2 2024, with Mass Capacity HDDs contributing 83% of that total. Notably, 79% of Seagate’s products were shipped directly to OEMs, underlining strong B2B traction. Western Digital also underscored significant enterprise momentum, pointing to a 12% quarter-over-quarter increase in total HDD exabyte (EB) shipments, with 125EB attributed to near-line storage alone. These figures prove that while the consumer segment is constantly shifting, enterprise-grade HDDs are likely to remain steady.
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Key Industry Highlights
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Global Market Attribute |
Key Insights |
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Hard Disk Drive (HDD) Market Size (2025E) |
US$ 41.7 Bn |
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Market Value Forecast (2032F) |
US$ 63.7 Bn |
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Projected Growth (CAGR 2025 to 2032) |
6.3% |
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Historical Market Growth (CAGR 2019 to 2024) |
4.8% |
The Hard Disk Drive (HDD) market growth is predicted to remain steady in specific sectors such as gaming, media storage, and surveillance systems. The gaming industry requires significant storage capacity to accommodate large game files, downloadable content, and updates. HDDs provide an affordable solution for gamers demanding extensive storage. The media and entertainment industry is further experiencing considerable growth in data generation, propelled by high-resolution content such as 8K and 4K videos.
The surge requires cost-effective and scalable storage solutions. HDDs are considered suitable for managing and achieving large media files in this industry. Lastly, in the field of surveillance systems, the requirement for storage solutions that can efficiently manage sequential write operations is rising. As surveillance systems generate continuous, high-volume video data, the use of high-capacity storage solutions is increasing exponentially. HDDs excel in this domain owing to their superior reliability, thereby showcasing high demand.
The solid-state drive market and the secure digital memory card market have been creating hindrances in the field of HDDs in recent years. Solid-state drives (SSDs) have made significant strides in cost-efficiency, performance, and capacity. In 2024, SSDs with capacities surpassing 100 TB became commercially available, providing high energy efficiency and performance compared to conventional HDDs.
A 2RU rack populated with 122 TB SSDs, for example, is capable of achieving up to 166.9 PB, vastly exceeding the 7.3 PB delivered by a similar HDD configuration. SSDs can also offer up to 54 times faster read bandwidth and relatively lower latency, making these ideal for data-intensive applications. Secure digital memory cards, on the other hand, provides high speed, portability, as well as affordability. They are gaining traction in industrial applications, including automotive systems and medical devices, due to their compact form factor and resilience.
At present, HDD manufacturers are gaining new growth opportunities from data centers. This is attributed to the rapid growth of data generated by digital services, cloud computing, and artificial intelligence across data centers. Even though SSDs are showcasing high growth trajectories worldwide, HDDs continue to play a key role in large-scale data centers due to their high capacity and cost-effectiveness.
Leading companies such as Western Digital have already reported significant surges in enterprise storage revenues. The cloud storage segment of Western Digital contributed to nearly 55% of its total revenue in the recent quarter, pointing to the important role of HDDs in catering to the rising storage requirements of data centers.
In terms of form factor, the market is bifurcated into 2.5 inch and 3.5 inch. Among these, the 3.5-inch segment is poised to lead by holding nearly 54.6% of the Hard Disk Drive (HDD) market share in 2025. This dominance is attributed to its higher cache size as compared to 2.5-inch HDDs at similar price range. It also has superior spin speeds boosted by high physical dimensions and power consumption. Leading manufacturers are innovating in this segment by launching new products with improved storage capabilities, reaching up to 22 TB.
The 2.5-inch segment, on the other hand, is expected to show a decent CAGR from 2025 to 2032. This is due to their increasing adoption in portable devices such as notebooks and laptops. Manufacturers are constantly investing in the development of efficient yet portable hard drives within this segment. They are also focusing on improving the shock resistance and durability of these drives, making them ideal for mobile computing applications.
In terms of application, the market is segregated into mobile, consumer, desktop, nearline, and enterprise. Out of these, the nearline segment is projected to generate a share of approximately 36.4% in 2025, according to Persistence Market Research. It is propelled by rising demand for high-capacity data storage solutions in sectors such as media and entertainment as well as healthcare. Nearline HDDs are highly preferred in these sectors as they demand the storage of archived or cold data for long periods while maintaining fast accessibility.
The consumer segment is envisioned to experience average growth in the foreseeable future, backed by the mass migration to SSDs. These offer improved durability, reduced power consumption, and high speed. In addition, cloud-based storage solutions are exhibiting surging demand. Services such as Dropbox and Google Drive have lowered the requirement for high-capacity personal storage devices at home. It has further declined the appeal of external storage drives.
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In North America, the U.S. Hard Disk Drive (HDD) market is predicted to account for a share of nearly 33.2% in 2025. The country’s dominant position is attributed to its well-established data center infrastructure, with more than 5,375 data centers operating across the U.S. A report published in Forbes found that in 2024, total HDD shipments in the country reached 123.9 Mn units, marking a 1.6% increase from the previous year. In addition, total exabytes shipped surged by 49% year-over-year, amounting to 1,337 exabytes. This is attributed to rising demand for nearline HDDs in data centers, which provide affordable solutions for large-scale data storage requirements.
Key manufacturing companies have responded to this demand with technological innovations. For instance, Seagate recently launched Heat-Assisted Magnetic Recording (HAMR) technology to produce higher-capacity drives. Its new 36TB HAMR-based HDDs exemplify this innovation, meeting the requirements of hyperscale data centers. Western Digital also started shipping 28TB shingled magnetic recording (SMR) drives and 24TB conventional magnetic recording (CMR) drives. These were designed to meet the high storage requirements of enterprise customers.
The market scenario in Europe is no different than that of North America with rising demand for HDDs in the enterprise segment. In the consumer segment, sales have been on a downward trajectory. In the U.K., the external disk storage systems market is showing decent growth, backed by the requirement for high-capacity, portable storage solutions. Manufacturers are integrating innovative security features, including biometric authentication and hardware encryption to cater to the rising data privacy concerns among organizations and consumers.
In Germany, HDD sales have experienced a slight uptick in the consumer segment. This growth is attributed to increasing demand for Network-Attached Storage (NAS) devices and desktops, propelled by the country's robust IT infrastructure. Also, the surging requirement for personal and small business data storage solutions is boosting demand. The enterprise segment is exhibiting rapid growth with increasing proliferation of data-intensive applications, implementation of data localization norms, and demand for cloud computing.
In Asia Pacific, the market is currently undergoing subtle transformations due to declining consumer demand as well as steady growth in data center and enterprise applications. In China, HDD usage dropped by 12.5% year-over-year in 2024 alone, totaling nearly 73 Mn units. This decline highlighted a significant shift toward Solid-State Drives (SSDs) in consumer electronics. However, demand for HDDs from enterprises remains strong due to rapid expansion of the country’s data center infrastructure. Key cloud service providers such as Huawei Cloud, Tencent Cloud, and Alibaba Cloud are investing in large-scale data centers, which require high-capacity HDDs for long-term, cost-effective storage solutions.
In Japan, on the other hand, sales of consumer-level HDDs have sharply declined owing to the rising adoption of SSDs in desktops and laptops. BCN Ranking data from 2024 mentioned that retail sales volume of HDDs in Japan dropped by over 20% year-on-year, with SSDs accounting for more than 70% of storage device shipments in the consumer electronics segment. Domestic electronics retailers such as Bic Camera and Yodobashi Camera have notably downsized their HDD offerings, pointing to the shrinking retail footprint of these devices. In data centers, however, demand for HDDs is rising as they require high-capacity storage for archival and backup purposes.
The global Hard Disk Drive (HDD) market is characterized by strategic developments and innovations among leading companies. Key manufacturers are investing in the development of high-capacity drives with improved performance, specifically for enterprise and data center applications. They are also focusing on research and development activities to come up with technologies such as Shingled Magnetic Recording (SMR) and Conventional Magnetic Recording (CMR). As manufacturers adapt to changing demand patterns between enterprise and consumer segments, operational agility has become significant.
The ability of manufacturers to innovate their products while maintaining cost competitiveness will likely bring success in the market. They are expected to focus on coming up with specialized products for emerging or niche applications while maintaining strong relationships with long-term clients. Strategic account management and cooperative development strategies are required due to the concentration of buying power among OEMs and large cloud service providers.
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Report Attribute |
Details |
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Historical Data/Actuals |
2019 - 2024 |
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Forecast Period |
2025 - 2032 |
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Market Analysis Units |
Value: US$ Bn/Mn, Volume: As Applicable |
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Geographical Coverage |
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Segmental Coverage |
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Competitive Analysis |
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Report Highlights |
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Customization and Pricing |
Available upon request |
By Form Factor
By Storage Capacity
By Drive Interface
By Application
By Region
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The market is projected to reach US$ 41.7 Bn in 2025.
Increasing demand from data centers and rising requirements for high-volume video data management in surveillance systems are the key market drivers.
The market is poised to witness a CAGR of 6.3% from 2025 to 2032.
Innovations in 3.5-inch designs and surging private cloud infrastructure development are the key market opportunities.
Seagate Technology Holdings PLC, Toshiba Corporation, and Western Digital Corporation are a few key market players.
