Objective To conduct a visual analysis of the research hotspots and trends in dilated cardiomyopathy based on CiteSpace software. Method Based on CiteSpace software, a bibliometric analysis of the relevant literature on dilated cardiomyopathy from 2005 to 2020 included in CNKI and Web of Science. Results Finally, 763 Chinese documents and 2900 English documents were included in the present study. Results showed that the first three authors of CNKI's articles are Wang Zhentao, Liao Yuhua, and Li Weimin, and the first three authors of Web of Science articles are GIANFRANCO SINAGRA, MARCO MERLO, GIULIA BARBATI. The research institution with the most CNKI publications is the Department of Cardiology, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, and the research institution with the most publications on the Web of Science is Stanford University. The country with the most published Web of Science articles and the country with the highest centrality is the United States. The results showed that "dilated cardiomyopathy," "cardiomyopathy" and "heart failure" were the keywords with the highest intensity. Visual analysis results show seven large keyword clusters for CNKI and 6 for Web of Science. Nine prominent words are generated in CNKI, and 12 prominent words are generated in Web of Science. Conclusion The clinical research on dilated cardiomyopathy began to focus on the treatment of dilated cardiomyopathy with heart failure or arrhythmia. Then the diagnosis and risk assessment of dilated cardiomyopathy became the center. After that, new drugs and therapies for dilated cardiomyopathy became the research center, and Chinese medicine therapy became a favored direction. In the direction of basic research, the genetic factors and autoimmune factors of dilated cardiomyopathy were centered in the early stage, and then the focus shifted to the myocardial fibrosis mechanism of dilated cardiomyopathy. However, there is little cooperation between different researchers and research institutions. It is recommended to strengthen the communication and cooperation between researchers and research institutions and carry out high-quality clinical research to lay the foundation for the clinical prevention and treatment of dilated cardiomyopathy.