Sodium?ion batteries have become one of the research hotspots in the field of energy storage because of their advantages of low cost and high safety. This paper tried to clarify the development history of the hard carbon anode of sodium?ion batteries and address the current disadvantages of sodium?ion batteries, such as low initial coulombic efficiency, poor stability, and insufficient high magnification performance. In addition, to explore the sodium?ion storage mechanism in hard carbon, this paper used CiteSpace to visually analyze the development process of sodium?ion batteries and reviewed the research progress of performance optimization strategies for hard carbon anode in terms of material design, structure regulation, and function design and interface optimization. Furthermore, the paper summarized and discussed the existing hard carbon sodium storage mechanisms and finally prospected the development direction of the hard carbon anode of sodium?ion batteries.