Objective To summarize the research progress on esketamine in Chinese and English literature in recent 10 years, make bibliometric and visual analysis on the research hotspots and evolution trends in this field, and discuss the research frontier and development direction involved, in order to provide reference for related research. Methods The China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), Wanfang Data, and China Science and Technology Journal Database (VIP) were selected as the Chinese literature data sources, while the Web of Science (WOS) Core Collection was selected as the English literature data source. Then, bibliometric methods and CiteSpace 6.2R1 software were applied for visual analysis of the authors, institutions and keywords of esketamine‑related Chinese and English literature published from January 1, 2013 to March 25, 2023. The results of visual analysis were showed in the form of knowledge map. The trend of publication volume, high‑yield authors, author cooperation, publication institution ranking, and institutional cooperation were summarized, while keyword co‑occurrence, clustering analysis, and emergence analysis were performed. In the cluster map, the cluster module value (Q)>0.3 was considered to be significant, while the average contour value (S)>0.5 was considered to be reasonable. The research status and development trend of esketamine were summarized based on the above results. Results From 2013 to 2023, the number of esketamine‑related studies published in Chinese and English literature showed an overall upward trend. The visual analysis results demonstrated that there was more cooperation among English author teams than Chinese, more inter‑agency cooperation, and plenty of international cooperation. The author with the highest number of Chinese articles was Yang Jianjun, and the author with the highest number of English articles was Hashimoto K. The institution publishing Chinese literature was mainly Department of Anesthesia and Perioperative Medicine, the First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University. The institution publishing English literature was mainly Johnson & Johnson of the United States. According to the keyword co‑occurrence analysis, the hot keywords in Chinese literature were "propofol", "sufentanil", "cesarean section", and "ketamine", etc, while the hot keywords in English literature were "double‑blind", "ketamine", "treatment‑resistant depression" and "efficacy", etc. According to the keyword cluster map, the Chinese and English literatures in recent years focused on pharmacological effect, mechanism of action, and application group (Q>0.3, S>0.5). According to the results of keyword emergence analysis, the antidepressant effect of esketamine may become a hot topic in the future. Conclusions The current research frontiers and hotspots in Chinese and English literature mainly focus on the combined anesthetic effect of esketamine and other anesthetics, clinical trials, application group and treatment of depression. Esketamine‑related research is still needed, and it is necessary to strengthen cooperation between authors and institutions and further in‑depth research.