Atrial fibrillation is a common arrhythmia in clinic and seriously endangers human health. The focus of treatment is to effectively control the onset of atrial fibrillation and reduce complications on the early stage. Since catheter ablation is an invasive treatment, previous guidelines have recommended catheter ablation as a second-line treatment strategy. In recent years, with the progress and optimization of catheter ablation technology, catheter ablation is expected to replace antiarrhythmic drugs as the first-line treatment of atrial fibrillation. This paper systematically introduces the exploration of catheter ablation as the first-line treatment of atrial fibrillation, and discusses some new technologies that are expected to become the first-line treatment of atrial fibrillation.