The article dissects the empirical research on gameful foreign language teaching and learning on the basis of relevant literature in Web of Science from 2003 to 2018. The results show that the current research mainly focuses on the following four aspects: verifying the effects of gameful foreign language teaching, analyzing the influence of the two elements-game and individual-on teaching, and the design and development of digital games for foreign language teaching. Finally, this article puts forward some proposals for the prospects of this domain. In the future, close attention will be paid to the following four aspects: relevant new theories and perspectives, integration of gamification and foreign language curriculum, mining and analyzing of research data, and the paradigm relevant to design-based development and research.