Abstract: With the rapid development of combustible ice and shale gas mining technology, the reserve of methane (CH4) has been growing abundant. Therefore, there is a paradigm shift, where CH4 is not seen only as a hydrocarbon fuel, but also as carbon feedstocks for synthesizing various value-added chemicals. However, the conventional CH4 conversion technology, especially steam reforming of methane, normally requires extensive energy input due to the extremely stable bonding of CH4. To this end, photocatalysis, which can break the thermodynamic barrier of CH4 conversion, has been known as a promising candidate for reaching large-scale CH4 conversion under ambient condition. In the photocatalytic CH4 conversion researches, metal oxides have been extensively investigated mainly due to their high oxidation capability. In this review, a discussion is first given on the fundamentals of CH4 conversion and the advantages of metal oxides in such a reaction. Then the development of metal oxides-based photocatalysts in various CH4 conversion reactions is reviewed, including total oxidation of methane (TOM), partial oxidation of methane (POM), dry-reforming of methane (DRM), non-oxidative coupling of methane (NOCM), lattice oxygen mediated oxidative coupling of methane (LOCM) and so on. Finally, the opportunities of metal oxides-based photocatalytic CH4 conversion along with the challenges are summarized.