Abstract: Soil microbial necromass has become a hot research field. This study systematically described the research status and hot spots of soil microbial necromass from 1991 to 2022 and analyzed some existing problems in this field, which would help relevant scholars deepen their understanding of this research field. The number of publications, cited times, authors, countries (regions), research institutions, journals and keywords in this research field included in WOS (Web of Science) core collection database from 1991 to 2022 were statistically analyzed by bibliometric method. VOSviewer visualization software was used to analyze the authors, countries (regions), research institutions, journals and significant keywords with principal contributions. ① From 1991 to 2022, Chinese scholars have published 179 papers in this field, ranking first in the world. ② According to the annual publications, the research history could be roughly divided into three stages. These three stages were respectively named as the embryonic stage (1991-2003), the fluctuating development stage (2004-2015) and the exponential growth stage (2016-2022). ③ He H.B., Liang C., Zhang X.D. and Ding X.L. were the core authors of this research field. ④ Chinese Academy of Sciences was the core research institution. ⑤ Soil Biology & Biochemistry was the main source journal of WOS database. ⑥ The co-occurrence network of keywords in this field showed that current researches mostly focus on the contribution of microbial necromass to soil organic matter and its response to climate change. Soil microbial necromass research is at the stage of exponential growth. Domestic scholars have made great contributions to the development of soil microbial necromass research. The extension of microbial necromass biomarkers, the mechanisms of accumulation of microbial residues and plant lignin in different ecosystems, the possible important role of microbial necromass in nitrogen cycle or phosphorus cycle, the differences of microbial necromass contents in different soil depths and broader geographical patterns are likely to be the research hotspots in the future.