Steel material is the main structural material of marine equipment, but its corrosion usually occurs in the marine atmosphere environment, thus affecting its service performance. Compared with general atmospheric corrosion, marine atmospheric corrosion is affected by sea salt aerosols, chloride ions and other specific factors of marine atmosphere. In addition, the marine atmospheric corrosion properties of steel materials are closely related to the alloying elements of the materials. This paper reviewed the relevant studies of worldwide scholars on the effect of rare metal doping on the marine atmospheric corrosion resistance of steel materials in recent years, and summarized the corrosion mechanism of carbon steel, stainless steel, weathering steel and other common structural steels under marine atmospheric environment. The effects of Nb, Mo, Sb, Sn, Ce, La, Y and other rare metal elements on the marine atmospheric corrosion resistance of steel materials were analyzed. For weathering steel and carbon steel, the effect of rare metal elements on the structure of rust layer was mainly discussed. For stainless steel, the effect mechanism of rare metal elements on inclusion modification and pitting behavior of stainless steel was discussed. The future research directions were prospected, in order to provide references for the application of rare metal doped steel in marine atmospheric environment and for the improvement of marine atmospheric corrosion resistance.