https://www.tomshardware.com/news/sales-of-hdds-drop-35-percent-year-over-year Skip to main content (*) ( ) Open menu Close menu Tom's Hardware [ ] Search Search Tom's Hardware [ ] RSS (opens in new tab) (opens in new tab) (opens in new tab) (opens in new tab) (opens in new tab) US Edition flag of US flag of UK UK flag of US US flag of Australia Australia flag of Canada Canada * * Reviews * Best Picks * Raspberry Pi * CPUs * GPUs * Coupons * Newsletter * More + Laptops + SSDs + Motherboards + Cooling + Desktops + PC Builds + Monitors + RAM + PC Cases + Keyboards + Headsets + Mice + Power Supplies + 3D Printers + VR Headsets + About Tom's Hardware Forums (opens in new tab) Trending * Ryzen 9 7950X3D * RTX 4090 Ti / Titan RTX Ada * Ryzen 7 7800X3D * Raptor Lake * RX 7900 XTX When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here's how it works. 1. Home 2. News HDD Sales Crater, Drop 35% Year-over-Year By Anton Shilov published 15 April 2023 Unit shipments of nearline drives suffer the most in the first quarter as exascalers remain cautious. * (opens in new tab) * (opens in new tab) * * (opens in new tab) * (opens in new tab) * (opens in new tab) * Comments (1) Seagate (Image credit: Seagate) Sales of hard disk drives in the first quarter dropped by a whopping 35% year-over-year in Q1 2023 as PC and consumer electronics (CE) makers remained cautious getting new hardware due to uncertain demand. But the most surprising event during the quarter was continued shrinkage of nearline HDD shipments, the most lucrative part of the hard drive market. Unit Shipments Down, Exabytes Shipments Dow Seagate, Toshiba, and Western Digital shipped estimated 33.5 and 34.9 million HDD units, a 35% year-over-year decline, according to numbers from Trendfocus published by Blocks & Files. Swipe to scroll horizontally Row 0 - Cell 0 Q1 2023 Q1 2022 Change Nearline 10.2 million 18.8 million -54.3% PC Client + CE 22.5 million 31.25 million -28% 3.5-inch DT + CE 12.5 million 16.447 million -24% 2.5-inch Laptop + CE 10 million 24.925 million -33% Nearline HDDs have been bread and butter for hard drive makers for a while given their consistently increasing per-drive capacities. But in Q1 2023 only 10.2 million of such drives were shipped, down from 18.8 million from Q1 2022 and 10.51 million in Q4 2022. On the capacity side of matters, such drives shipped was around 157EBs, declining by 36% year-over-year (YoY) and 1% quarter-over-quarter (QoQ). Seagate believes that the nearline HDD shipments are poised to grow in the future as their consumers (read: exascalers) expect their businesses to prosper. "I will say for the medium-term, long-term, we don't see any difference," said Gianluca Romano, chief financial officer of Seagate, at the Morgan Stanley Technology, Media & Telecom Conference (via SeekingAlpha). "I think they are very confident their business is going to grow as they were expecting they need to manage their short term down cycle and with no in some cases, in some cases, this inventory build-up, but we don't see any change in the long-term view." As far as PC and CE-oriented drives are concerned, their shipments totaled 23.3 to 24.7 million units, a decline of 24% - 33% depending on the exact segment. The 2.5-inch HDD segmented recorded a yet another major year-over year decline of 33%. This decrease highlights the ongoing trend of hard drives PC and CE market share declining, so this was not a particularly surprising thing. Seagate Retains Top Spot As far as shipments of individual vendors are concerned, Seagate sold estimated 15 - 15.5 million hard drives and maintained its market share of around 44.8%, according to Storage Newsletter that cites numbers from Trendfocus. Swipe to scroll horizontally Supplier HDD Units Q/Q change Y/Y change Market share Seagate 15.00 - 15.50 -2.3% -- -1% -34.7% -- 44.8% -- million -32.6% 44.4% Toshiba 6.30 - 6.70 million -21.4% -- -37.2% -- 18.8% -- 9.2% -16.5% -33.2% WDC 12.20 - 12.70 -5.4% -- -1.5% -38.2% -- 36.4% -- million -35.6% 36.4% TOTAL 33.50 - 34.90 -7.6% -- -3.8% -36.5 -- 100% million -33.9% Western Digital reportedly supplied some 12.2 - 12.7 million HDDs and commanded an approximately 36.4% share. Toshiba remained a distant third with an estimated shipment of 6.3 - 6.7 million units and a roughly 19% market share. Be In the Know Get instant access to breaking news, in-depth reviews and helpful tips. [ ][ ]Contact me with news and offers from other Future brands[ ]Receive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors[Sign me up] By submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions (opens in new tab) and Privacy Policy (opens in new tab) and are aged 16 or over. Anton Shilov Anton Shilov Social Links Navigation Freelance News Writer Anton Shilov is a Freelance News Writer at Tom's Hardware US. Over the past couple of decades, he has covered everything from CPUs and GPUs to supercomputers and from modern process technologies and latest fab tools to high-tech industry trends. More about hard drives Western Digital WD Launches Dual-Actuator 20TB HDDs With SATA SSD-Like Throughput Seagate Seagate: 22TB and 24TB HDDs Launching Soon, 30+TB HAMR Follows in Q3 Latest SSD drives Best SSD and Hard Drive Deals See more latest > Topics Hard Drives Components See all comments (1) [ ] 1 Comment Comment from the forums * Tom Sunday I am still running several 8-year old WD's in both 2TB and 3TB sizes in my hobbled together and 4-generation ago PC. Great HHD performance all around. I will probably entertain in replacing both WD's after 10-years of sterling service. Based on this article I hope to purchase equally sized HHD's at that time for less than $30-$35 each including significant product improvements. I am the typical man on the street and not a computer enthusiast by a long-shot. Thus having no issues either living with a "boot-up period" of 60-plus-seconds or more. In the end unfortunately it's all about the money and which as usual has always been in short supply. The have and the have nots. Reality bites! Reply * View All 1 Comment Most Popular [missing-im]AMD's Radeon Pro W7900 Gets RDNA 3, 48GB, 12K Support By Anton ShilovApril 13, 2023 [missing-im]More Details About Intel's Grand Ridge and Sierra Forest CPUs Emerge By Anton ShilovApril 13, 2023 [missing-im]Seagate Launches 22TB HDD, Listed for $18 Per TB By Zhiye LiuApril 13, 2023 [missing-im]AMD Radeon RX 6800 Drops to $469 as RTX 4070 Arrives By Aaron KlotzApril 13, 2023 [missing-im]RTX On: Nvidia Data Shows Surprising Amount of Gamers Use Ray Tracing, DLSS By Mark TysonApril 13, 2023 [missing-im]AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D vs Intel Core i9-13900K vs Core i7-13700K: Big Gaming Punch, Smaller Price Tag By Paul AlcornApril 13, 2023 [missing-im]GPU Sagging Could Break VRAM on 20- and 30-Series Models: Report By Aaron KlotzApril 13, 2023 [missing-im]Early GeForce RTX 4070 Availability Appears Strong Unless You Want a Founders Edition By Brandon HillApril 13, 2023 [missing-im]Where to Buy the Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070: Links and Prices, All Custom Cards By Aaron KlotzApril 13, 2023 [missing-im]Microsoft Mulling Steam Deck-Style Windows Gaming Handheld Mode By Mark TysonApril 13, 2023 [missing-im]AMD Zen 6 CPUs Are Reportedly Based On The 2nm Process Node By Zhiye LiuApril 12, 2023 MOST POPULARMOST SHARED 1. SSD drives 1 Best SSD and Hard Drive Deals 2. 2 HDD Sales Crater, Drop 35% Year-over-Year 3. 3 Best Deals on Monitors: 4K, Gaming, More 4. 4 How To Create Your Own Auto-GPT AI Agent 5. 5 Corsair Vengeance RGB DDR5-7000 C34 Review: Premium Performance 1. SSD drives 1 Best SSD and Hard Drive Deals 2. 2 HDD Sales Crater, Drop 35% Year-over-Year 3. 3 Best Deals on Monitors: 4K, Gaming, More 4. 4 How To Create Your Own Auto-GPT AI Agent 5. 5 Corsair Vengeance RGB DDR5-7000 C34 Review: Premium Performance Tom's Hardware is part of Future US Inc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. Visit our corporate site (opens in new tab). * Terms and conditions (opens in new tab) * Contact Future's experts (opens in new tab) * Privacy policy (opens in new tab) * Cookies policy (opens in new tab) * Accessibility Statement (opens in new tab) * Advertise (opens in new tab) * About us (opens in new tab) * Coupons (opens in new tab) * Careers (opens in new tab) (c) Future US, Inc. Full 7th Floor, 130 West 42nd Street, New York, NY 10036.