BackgroundAs the complexity and diversity of the tumor immune microenvironment (TIME) are becoming better understood, burgeoning research has progressed in this field. However, there is a scarcity of literature specifically focused on the bibliometric analysis of this topic. This study sought to investigate the development pattern of TIME-related research from 2006 to September 14, 2022, from a bibliometric perspective.MethodsWe acquired both articles and reviews related to TIME from the Web of Science Core Collection (WoSCC) (retrieved on September 14, 2022). R package “Bibliometrix” was used to calculate the basic bibliometric features, present the collaborative conditions of countries and authors, and generate a three-field plot to show the relationships among authors, affiliations, and keywords. VOSviewer was utilized for co-authorship analysis of country and institution and keyword co-occurrence analysis. CiteSpace was used for citation burst analysis of keywords and cited references. In addition, Microsoft Office Excel 2019 was used to develop an exponential model to fit the cumulative publication numbers.ResultsA total of 2545 publications on TIME were included, and the annual publication trend exhibited a significant increase over time. China and Fudan University were the most productive country and institution, with the highest number of publications of 1495 and 396, respectively. Frontiers in Oncology held the highest number of publications. A number of authors were recognized as the main contributors in this field. The clustering analysis revealed six clusters of keywords that highlighted the research hot spots in the fields of basic medical research, immunotherapy, and various cancer types separately.ConclusionsThis research analyzed 16 years of TIME-related research and sketched out a basic knowledge framework that includes publications, countries, journals, authors, institutions, and keywords. The finding revealed that the current research hot spots of the TIME domain lie in “TIME and cancer prognosis”, “cancer immunotherapy”, and “immune checkpoint”. Our researchers identified the following areas: “immune checkpoint-based immunotherapy”, “precise immunotherapy” and “immunocyte pattern”, which may emerge as frontiers and focal points in the upcoming years, offering valuable avenues for further exploration.Supplementary InformationThe online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s40001-023-01195-3.