As one of the important thermal spraying technologies, plasma spraying has been widely used in the field of surface strengthening treatment and remanufacturing damage repair. Due to many differences in mechanical parts work environment (temperature, speed, corrosion environment, lubrication conditions, etc.), substrate materials, movement forms and other factors, it is usually necessary to choose the optimal surface enhancement coating according to their specific service condition to satisfy the demands of the parts surface tribology performance and promote the comprehensive service of machinery and equipment performance. Based on this, the paper gives a detailed overview of the material system and coating performance of typical wear-resistant coatings prepared by plasma spraying technology at home and abroad, and systematically introduces the influence mechanism of such factors as structure composition, phase structure, mechanical properties, and service conditions on the tribological properties of typical coatings (metal-based coatings, ceramic-based coatings and multiphase composite coatings, etc.). And the results showed that the tribological properties of the coating were affected by the internal factors related to the characteristics of the coating itself (porosity, mechanical properties, tissue composition, etc.) and external factors related to the service conditions (including load, frequency, lubrication state, working medium, etc.). The tribological properties of some typical metal-based wear resistant coatings including Fe-based, Ni-based and Mo-based coatings can be significantly improved through surface treatment, post-treatment and process optimization. The wear degree of ceramic coating is different due to the difference of particle melting degree in different spraying methods. It is found that the nano-coating can reduce wear by absorbing stress. The composite coating can reduce its friction coefficient and reduce coating wear by adding lubricating phase. Compared with a single lubricating phase, multiple lubrication groups can exert synergistic lubrication effect to maintain good wear resistance of the coating at different temperature ranges. Finally, the improvement and optimization direction of wear resistance of plasma spraying coating are prospected.