The concept of acoustic metamaterials originated from local resonance phononic crystals. As a new type of composite artificial materials, acoustic metamaterials have excellent special properties. For example, compared with conventional sound insulation materials, they can manipulate sound waves flexibly and accurately, and use small and lightweight structure to solve broadband low-frequency sound insulation. In this paper, the latest research progresses of acoustic metamaterials in sound insulation and noise reduction are reviewed. Based on bandgap theory and equivalent parameters, the sound insulation mechanism is discussed, and the related work is introduced in detail, including Helmholtz, membrane, space-coiling and composite sound insulation metamaterials. Finally, the application of this new field is predicted.