Semiconductor lasers are widely used for applications in biology, information storage, photonics and medical therapeutics. With the development of the emerging area of nano-optics and nanophotonics, more compact lasers attract significant interest. As the cavity size is reduced with respect to the emission wavelength, interesting physical effects in electromagnetic cavities arise. To scale down the semiconductor lasers in all three dimensions plays an important role in the development of low-dimension, low-threshold, and ultrafast coherent light sources, as well as integrated nano-optoelectronic and plasmonic circuits. In this review, the overall formal-ism of mode gain and confinement factor in the metal-semiconductor plasmonic lasers was introduced firstly. In addition, an updated overview of the latest developments, particularly in plasmonic nanolasers using the met-al-insulator-semiconductor (MIS) configuration and another related metal-cladded semiconductor microlasers was presented. In particular, it has been experimentally demonstrated that the use of plasmonic cavities based on MIS nanostructures can indeed break the diffraction limit in three dimensions. We also present some perspec-tives on the challenges and development trend for the plasmonic nanolasers. This review can provide useful guide for the research of plasmonic nanolasers.