Tape still isn’t dead, but shipments slipped by 16 exabytes in 2025

Tape is still not dead, but it’s not in rude health either after shipments slipped by 16 exabytes in 2025. That number comes from the LTO Program – the alliance of HPE, IBM, and Quantum Corp, that together tends the Linear Tape-Open (LTO) Format that accounts for around 85 percent of all tape sales. The Program delivers an annual data dump describing the previous year’s shipments, and this year’s effort landed on Tuesday with news that 160.3 exabytes worth of LTO tape wen