Solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) is a power generation device that can directly convert chemical energy into electrical energy, which has a high power generation efficiency. Compared with the conventional power generation mode, the use of the SOFC to generate electricity can greatly reduce the environmental pollution. Solid oxide fuel cells can be divided into tubular and flat plate types according to their structure. The structural characteristics of SOFC determine that its high temperature sealing difficulty is lower than that of plate structure, and the special tubular SOFC structure design can completely solve the high-temperature sealing problem, especially in the tubular SOFC structure with multiple single cells in series integrated design on one battery tube. One battery tube is equivalent to a small stack with unique output characteristics of a high voltage and a low current, which can significantly reduce the ohmic polarization loss of tubular cells. The reduced sealing difficulty of tubular SOFC makes the tubular battery stack relatively easy, and the thermal stress constraint in the operation of the stack is small, which is conducive to the long-term stable operation of the stack. Compared with plate batteries, their volumetric power density and output current density are relatively low under the same conditions. In addition, tubular SOFC can be also operated under pressure due to its good sealing characteristics, further improving the power generation efficiency. After continuous development, significant breakthroughs in the technology of tubular SOFC are mode, especially for establishing kilowatt level SOFC power generation systems and achieving commercialization. Most of the single tube batteries used are multi-cell structures. The development of SOFC technology starts relatively late in China, so although it is commercialized, it is mostly a single tube single cell structure, and there is little research on multiple cells. This review represented the typical structural design of tubular SOFC, and classified the geometry of tubular SOFC and the material types of battery supports, including anode supported type, cathode supported type, ceramic tube supported type, and metal/cermet supported type according to the battery support materials. The bamboo round tube, bamboo flat tube, single-section round tube and single-section flat tube structure were classified according to the geometry of the tubular SOFC. Also, a small-sized microtubule SOFC was introduced, having a higher power density, compared to large-sized tubular batteries due to their smaller size. Also, the common materials and preparation methods of tubular SOFC were reviewed, for instance, high-temperature sintering method and spraying method. Finally, the further development on tubular SOFC was prospected.