Femtosecond laser has many applications in different areas, such as the strong-field laser physics, ultrafast chemical kinetics, the microstructure of materials science, and life science. The Yb:KGW crystal with its excellent performance is so suitable to be femtosecond laser gain media that the research of Yb:KGW femtosecond laser is of great significance. Since Switzerland-developed the world′s first passively mode-locked Yb:KGW femtosecond laser in 2000, there have been a number of domestic and foreign institutions dedicating to the research of Yb:KGW femtosecond laser. The latest progress of the Yb:KGW femtosecond laser at home and abroad is reported. The shortest pulse width is 100 fs. There′s still a big gap between experimental value and the theoretical value of 47 fs.