With the help of CiteSpace, this study analyzed the research articles on pragmatic competence published in CSSCI-, SSCI- and A&HCI-indexed journals during 2006-2015. Results indicate that: 1) in terms of the amount of publication, research on pragmatic competence in international journals has risen by four times, but only slight increase is found in Chinese journals; 2) in terms of topic selection, studies in China pay more attention to the testing and teaching of pragmatic competence, while those abroad are more concerned with children’s pragmatic competence development, discoursal competence, pragmatic competence impairment, etc.; and 3) the references for studies on pragmatic competence at home and abroad are mainly from interlanguage pragmatics, general pragmatics and second language acquisition. Chinese journals cite more references on pragmatic testing, while those abroad cite more works on children’s pragmatic competence development and intercultural pragmatics. The paper also provides some suggestions for future research on pragmatic competence.