A magnetic recording medium includes a substrate, and a magnetic recording layer including magnetic grains having an L10 structure. The magnetic recording layer is (001) oriented, and a surface of growth of the magnetic recording layer includes a (001) plane, a (111) plane, and planes equivalent to the (111) plane. An area ratio of the (111) plane and the planes equivalent to the (111) plane, represented by (A111+A111e)/(A001+A111+A111e), is in a range of 0.2 to 0.7, where A111 denotes an area of the (111) plane, A111e denotes an area of the planes equivalent to the (111) plane, and A001 denotes an area of the (001) plane.