The sporadic outbreaks of human mpox diseases in the nearly twenty years have seriously influenced the public health and economic. Though the reservoirs of mpox virus (MPXV) are mainly rodents, it could spill over to humans by direct contact and cause self-limiting infection with the symptom of lymphadenopathy and rash on the skin. Since the first case reported outside Africa in the USA at the beginning of this century in America, MPXV has been gradually prevalent globally and become an increasing public threat. With the advancing technology of viral detection and gene sequencing, many novel poxviruses were detected which enriched the variety of Poxviridae family. In this review, we provide a comprehensive overview on the latest classification, host spectrum, genome feature, pathogenicity and the evolution of MPXV and other poxviruses. This information will promote our understanding of the phylogenetic relationship and infectious transmission of pathogenic poxviruses and contribute to future viral researches and disease control.