With the development of high-speed and heavy-haul railway, the rolling contact fatigue (RCF) damage of wheel treads has become a significant problem, which affects the riding comfort, increases the maintenance cost and even threatens the running safety of trains. So far, there is not a radical solution. The formation mechanism, research methods and influencing factors of RCF damage of wheel treads at home and abroad were summarized. There were many forms of RCF damage of railway wheels. According to the different initiation positions on wheel treads, the RCF cracks were classified into the surface-initiated, subsurface-initiated and large depth initiated RCF cracks. With the improvement of metallurgical and wheel manufacturing technology, the surface-initiated RCF cracks caused by low cycle fatigue or ratchet effect became the main type of damage of RCF damage. The research methods mainly included field, experimental and numerical studies. According to previous works, several influencing factors on RCF damage of the wheel treads were discussed, including the wheel material properties, existing surface damage and defects of wheel, rail conditions, locomotive operating parameters and third-body contaminants at the contact interface. Some specific measures were further put forward to reduce RCF damage of wheel treads. Furthermore, specific measures to reduce RCF damage of wheel treads were put forward. In addition, the future study direction of RCF damage of wheel treads was also proposed.