Using 411 research literature on rural sports in China collected by CSSCI and Peking University Core from 1995 to 2023 as samples, descriptive statistical analysis and knowledge graph visualization methods were employed. CiteSpaee software was used to analyze the development and evolution of research in this field in China, including the number of publications, authors, institutions, keywords, and other information, as well as the situation of core authors and research institutions and cutting-edge trends. Research has found that the study of rural sports in China can be roughly divided into four stages: preliminary exploration (1995-2003), rapid development (2004-2010), rapid decline (2011-2016), and stable development (2017 present); The cooperation between core authors and publishing institutions is not close, and the cooperation among authors presents a characteristic of “large dispersion and small aggregation”. Institutions mainly conduct independent research, and a few research institutions with close cooperation are mostly within or neighboring provinces; The research hotspots in this field include rural sports public services and system construction, farmer sports consumption and culture, rural sports governance, construction of farmer sports fitness projects in the new rural construction, difficulties and countermeasures for high-quality development of farmer sports, and the role and value of mass sports; Guided by the interests and needs of rural areas and farmers, closely focusing on the strategy of rural revitalization, carrying out governance and exploring better development paths will become the forefront trend of research on rural sports in China in the future.