ObjectiveTo systematically review the incidence of internet addiction disorder among college students in China.MethodsPubMed, EMbase, VIP, WanFang Data and CNKI databases were electronically searched to collect cross-sectional studies on incidence rate of college students’ internet addiction in China from inception to February 2020. Two reviewers independently screened literature, extracted data and assessed the risk of bias of included studies, then, meta-analysis was performed by Stata 16.0 software.ResultsA total of 65 cross-sectional studies involving 87 702 subjects were included. The results of meta-analysis showed that: the overall incidence of college students’ internet addiction in China was 10.7% (95%CI 9.6% to 11.8%). The incidence of internet addiction from 2011 to 2018 (11.7%, 95%CI 10.2% to 13.2%) was higher than that from 2005 to 2010 (9.6%, 95%CI 8.1% to 11.1%). The incidence in male students (14.6%, 95%CI 13.1% to 16.0%) was higher than that in female students (6.9%, 95%CI 5.9% to 7.8%). The incidence of urban students (12.2%, 95%CI 9.3% to 15.2%) was higher than that of rural students (9.0%, 95%CI 7.3% to 10.6%). The incidence of students who were not satisfied with their major (16.2%, 95%CI 5.5% to 26.8%) was higher than that of satisfied (5.0%, 95%CI 1.3% to 8.8%). The incidence of students with poor academic performance (29.4%, 95%CI 11.9% to 47%) was higher than of excellent academic performance (4.1%, 95%CI 1.9% to 6.4%).ConclusionsThe incidence rate of internet addiction among college students in China shows an obvious upward trend. There are differences in the incidence rates of internet addiction among college students in different regions. The incidence rates of internet addiction are different among different genders, degree of satisfaction with their majors and academic achievements.