Zinc is an essential micronutrient for crops growth. However，the effect of zinc fertilizer application on cereal crops grain yield and the influencing factors are not summarized. By collecting 87 literatures to study the effect of zinc fertilizer application on the grain yields of wheat，maize and rice，as well as the key influencing factors by Meta-analysis. The results showed that the average grain yield of wheat，maize and rice increased by 9.9% by zinc fertilizer application. The rates of grain yield increase of rice and maize were similar，and were significantly higher than that of wheat. The average rate of grain yield increase of soil application of zinc was 8.2%，which was higher than that of spraying of zinc fertilizer，but the effect of spraying of zinc fertilizer was better than that of soil application of zinc fertilizer when the zinc application rate were the same. The optimum application rates of zinc fertilizer for rice，maize and wheat were 21-30，21-30 and 11-20 kg/hm²，respectively. In central China，the effect of zinc fertilizer on the increase of grain yield in rice and wheat was better than that in corn；and in northeast China，the effect of zinc fertilizer on the increase of grain yield in corn was better than that in rice and wheat. In addition，the increase of zinc fertilizer in rice，maize and wheat varied with age，and showed a trend of increasing after 2011. In conclusion，the application of zinc fertilizer can effectively improve the grain yield of cereal crops，but the rate of increase was affected by crop varieties，application methods，application rate，application time and other factors. Therefore，a variety of factors should be considered，and a reasonable application method and dosage should be determined before the application of zinc fertilizer to improve the effect of zinc fertilizer on grain yield of cereal crops.