Arid and semi-arid regions occupy about 41% of the total land surface on earth, which are highly sensitive to climatic change and anthropogenic disturbances. Studying the spatial patterns and drivers of soil microbial communities in arid and semi-arid regions gives rise to understanding the mechanisms that generate and maintain biodiversity in such regions, which is thus key to the maintenance of ecosystem productivity and stability. Here, this paper provides an overview of the published literature concerning the spatial patterns of soil microbial communities in arid and semi-arid regions. On the basis of the observed nonrandom spatial patterns of soil microbial communities in arid and semi-arid regions, an analysis of results of recent studies indicates that both geographic distances and environmental factors such as precipitation, vegetation effect the spatial patterns. And the relative importance of geographic distances and environmental factors is scale-dependent. Neutral theory and niche theory were applied to unveil the mechanisms shaping the spatial patterns in the latest research, showing that the underlying mechanisms are habitat-specific in arid and semi-arid regions. Based on the above analyses, future perspectives of this study are provided and highlighted: (1) Studying the spatial patterns of archaeal and fungal communities; (2) Conducting broader scale surveys; (3) Further exploring the mechanisms shaping the spatial patterns of soil microbial communities; And (4) studying the coupling between the distribution patterns of soil microbial communities and that of plant communities.