Elevational distribution pattern and maintenance of biodiversity are critical issues for a comprehensive study of biodiversity and ecosystem functioning. Compared to the well-known elevational diversity patterns of plants and animals, the study of elevational diversity patterns of soil microorganisms is still at the initial stage. The development of high-throughput sequencing platforms such as Roche 454 and Illumina MiSeq in recent years has led to rapid advancements in the study of the elevational distribution patterns of soil microbial diversity. This article describes an analysis of recent studies, which showed that the elevational distribution patterns of soil microbes were still obscure including no apparent patterns,decline patterns, hump-backed patterns and hollow patterns. However, it is certain that soil microbes do not follow the elevational diversity patterns of plants and animals,suggesting that the underlying mechanisms are different. Microorganisms may be more susceptible to changes in climate and environmental factors at the local elevational scale owing to their small size, strong dispersal ability, and high diversity and abundance. Soil pH, carbon, and nitrogen are important elements that affect the variation of microbial diversity and community composition at elevational gradients. Moreover, temperature and precipitation also play an important role. In addition to the properties of microorganisms and sampling limitation, the elevational patterns of soil microbial species richness may be affected by sequencing depth. At present, the study of soil microbial community in functional gene, community assembly mechanisms, and ecological theory verification still need further investigation. These findings suggest that the sequencing depth and sampling density should, therefore, be further increased in future related studies, and more studies should focus on the mechanisms of soil microbial community assembly and ecosystem functioning under the background of global climate change and biodiversity loss.