The present invention provides a magnetic recording medium which is capable of improving the perpendicular orientation of a perpendicular magnetic recording layer while maintaining a writing performance during recording and obtaining both an improvement in the perpendicular orientation and fine magnetic crystal particles with a uniform diameter, and which enables information to be recorded or reproduced at high density, a method of manufacturing the same, and a magnetic recording/reproducing apparatus. A magnetic recording medium 10 according to the present invention includes at least a soft magnetic underlayer 2, an orientation control layer 3, a magnetic recording layer 4, and a protective layer 5 formed on a non-magnetic substrate 1. The orientation control layer 3 has a seed layer 6 and an intermediate layer 7. The seed layer 6 is made of a Cu—Ti alloy that has a face-centered cubic structure and includes Cu as a main component. The Cu—Ti alloy has a (111) crystal plane oriented substantially perpendicular to the surface of the non-magnetic substrate 1 and has a pseudo-hexagonal structure.