Melanoma accounts for a third of all malignant skin tumors. The morbidity and mortality of melanoma have rapidly increased in recent decades, creating a global health burden. The overall success rate of melanoma treatment is poor compared with other malignant tumors. Animal models are an important tool for studying the pathogenesis, prevention, and treatment options of a disease and for identifying potential therapeutic targets and biomarkers. Mouse models of melanoma can be divided into induction, transplantation, and transgenic models. However, no mouse model of melanoma is fully consistent with the human disease. This article summarizes of use of mouse models in melanoma research over the past 20 years. We summarize and compare the preparation, advantages, disadvantages, and scope of application of melanoma mouse models, and we discuss their optimization for the evaluation of drugs and vaccines.