which unit of data storage nyt

The New York Times crossword clue “Which unit of data storage could hold 200,000 HD movies?” is answered with PETABYTE.

Quick Scoop

• In the January 1, 2026 NYT crossword, the clue about a unit of data storage big enough for 200,000 HD movies is clued as a six-letter answer.

• Crossword helper and explanation sites confirm that the intended answer is PETABYTE , a large data unit equal to about one million gigabytes.

• Tech and news writing often use petabytes as an example scale for massive storage systems, reinforcing why it fits such an enormous number of HD movies.

What is a petabyte?

• A petabyte is commonly defined as roughly 1,000 terabytes, or about one million gigabytes, depending on whether decimal or binary notation is used.

• Articles on large-scale storage describe systems holding tens of petabytes, equating them to billions of books or similarly huge real-world analogies.

Why it fits the clue

• HD movies typically take several gigabytes each, so a unit that can hold around 200,000 of them must be at the petabyte scale rather than just terabytes.

• Crossword commentary explicitly spells out that the NYT clue “unit of data storage could hold 200,000 HD movies?” is clued as PETABYTE, matching both the length and theme of the puzzle.

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