Abstract: With the rapid development of offshore wind power, which serves the national "dual-carbon" strategy goal, the problem of creeping discharge induced by special operating environments such as high humidity, high salt spray, heavy fouling, and easy condensation has brought great challenges to the operational reliability of electrical equipment. We firstly clarify the necessity of studying the creeping discharge of wet-dirty insulating materials, and introduce four macroscopic physical processes of creeping discharge of wet-dirty insulating materials in detail. Then, we analyze the current research status of the coupling process of condensation phase change and local arc on the surface of wet-dirty insulating materials, and summarize the mechanisms of drop condensation, electric-thermal-optical-plasma effect of creeping discharge, coupling mechanism of condensation phase change and creeping discharge, respectively. Finally, in view of the shortcomings of the existing research, we put forward the prospects in the research focus, technical difficulties and development trend of creeping discharge of wet-dirty insulating materials.The content of this paper helps to reveal the coupling mechanism between condensation phase transition and multi-effect synergistic process of creeping discharge on the surface of wet-dirty insulating materials, which can provide basic theoretical support for the construction of a model of creeping discharge of wet-dirty insulating materials applicable to engineering practice.