Osteoarthritis is a chronic degenerative joint disease that occurs mostly in the elderly and is one of the most common bone metabolic diseases, in which cells involved in the metabolic abnormalities mainly include chondrocytes. As an important cause of the abnormal metabolism of chondrocytes, mitochondrial dysfunction is closely associated with the occurrence and development of osteoarthritis. Mitophagy, the selective mitochondrial autophagy for damaged or dysfunctional mitochondria, plays an important role in the maintenance of mitochondrial quality control and mitochondria homeostasis. Accumulating evidence suggests that mitophagy plays a vital regulatory role in osteoarthritis, indicating that regulating the level of mitophagy may be a new strategy for its prevention and treatment. Therefore, we review the potential mechanism underlying the involvement of mitophagy in osteoarthritis, aiming to provide a theoretical basis for research related to mitophagy as a target for osteoarthritis treatment.