With the continuous improvement of global technological levels and the increasing demand for high-performance alloy materials in national economic construction, the traditional single principal component alloy is increasingly unable to meet people’s increasing service needs. High-entropy alloys play an important role in aerospace, mechanical manufacturing, biomedicine, energy development and other engineering fields because of their unique physical, chemical and mechanical properties. Based on the concept of high-entropy alloys, the high-entropy effect, lattice distortion effect, sluggish diffusion effect and cocktail effect of high-entropy alloys are represented in this paper. The common preparation methods of high-entropy alloys are summarized according to the classification of melting-casting method, mechanical alloying method and coating method. The strength and toughness, wear resistance, corrosion resistance, high temperature resistance, fatigue resistance, radiation resistance and magnetic properties of the high-entropy alloys are discussed. The application prospect of high-entropy alloys is summarized, and the future research and development direction of high-entropy alloys are prospected on this basis.