Visible-light-responsive tary metal tungstate (MWO4) photocatalysts are being increasingly investigated for energy conversion and environmental purification appli-cations owing to their striking features, including low cost, eco-friendliness, and high stability under acidic and oxidative conditions. However, rapid recombination of photoinduced electron–hole pairs and a narrow light response range to the solar spectrum lead to low photocatalytic activity of MWO4- based materials, thus significantly hampering their wide usage in practice. To enable their widespread practical usage, sig-nificant efforts have been devoted, by developing new con-cepts and innovative strategies. In this review, we aim to provide an integrated overview of the fundamentals and recent progress of MWO4-based photocatalysts. Furthermore, dif-ferent strategies, including morphological control, surface modification, heteroatom doping, and heterojunction fabri-cation, which are employed to promote the photocatalytic activities of MWO4-based materials, are systematically summarized and discussed. Finally, existing challenges and a future perspective are also provided to shed light on the development of highly efficient MWO4-based photocatalysts.