The migration of emerging pollutants in soil poses a potential threat to groundwater systems. Numerical simulation can predict the migration behavior of contaminants and reduce experimental costs. In this study, based on the bibliometric analysis method, CiteSpace software was used to perform big data mining and visualization analysis of the relevant research papers in the Web of Science core dataset from 1994 to 2024. This topic has published 417 papers and 9315 citations in the past 30 years and has shown a rising trend of increasing attention. The U.S. is the country and organization that has published the largest number of papers in this area, accounting for approximately 42% (175) of the total papers. Different research teams have formed close collaborations utilizing their respective strengths to conduct in-depth research in this area. Current research hotspots in this topic include emerging pollutant species, transport behavior, transformation mechanisms, and numerical simulations. Future research will likely focus on the risk assessment and management of emerging pollutants in soil. This provides a new perspective for research on the environmental behavior of emerging pollutants in soil and their early warning and control measures.