Alpine grassland is one of the important components of the alpine ecosystem on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. Its degradation has seriously affected the sustainable development and the grassland restoration of the plateau. Grassland degradation contains above-ground vegetation degradation and soil degradation, and these two forms interact each other. Studies on degradation of Tibetan Plateau mainly focused on the soil degradation, the variation of plant community biomass and soil carbon pool, and the driving mechanisms. However, the results exist large differences among these researches because of the measurements and temporal-spatial gap. This study collected the results of 64 studies on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau alpine grassland degradation from 2004 to 2022, including 1403 datasets on 16 indicators such as soil organic carbon, biomass, and diversity index. Meta-analysis was used to analyze the effects of grassland degradation on soil physical and chemical properties, vegetation productivity, and species diversity. Meanwhile, the soil physical and chemical properties and plant biomass of heavily degraded grassland were analyzed by linear regression. The results showed that soil organic carbon, total nitrogen, total phosphorus, available nitrogen, available phosphorus, available potassium, soil water content, above-ground biomass, underground biomass, and vegetation height significantly decreased with the aggravation of grassland degradation, while soil bulk density significantly increased. However, soil pH and total potassium showed no significant difference in each degradation stage. Shannon diversity index, Pielou evenness index, and Margalef richness index showed the decreasing trend overall. Soil organic carbon, total nitrogen, total phosphorus, available nitrogen, available phosphorus, available potassium, and soil water content were positively correlated with above-ground biomass and underground biomass, while soil bulk density was negatively correlated with above-ground biomass and underground biomass. Nevertheless, soil pH was negatively correlated with both above-ground biomass and underground biomass, but the correlations were insignificant. Therefore, the degradation of alpine grassland on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau changed the above-ground community diversity and biomass by changing the physical and chemical properties of soil. Among the soil nutrients, soil organic carbon dominantly influenced grassland degradation, followed by total nitrogen, total phosphorus, and total potassium. Nitrogen and phosphorus contents showed closely associated with plants biomass. Therefore, nitrogen and phosphorus addition could be an useful way for grassland degradation reconstruction, in order to reduce the nutrients' run off and prevent grassland deterioration. Our results provided a scientific basis for elucidating the mechanism of vegetation and soil characteristics in response to grassland degradation. And it further assisted the local government to formulate grazing policy and further restore the degraded alpine grassland.