The slick water fracturing fluid with drag reducing agent as the main component has the advantages of small formation damage and low treatment cost. However, lower drag reducing efficiency of the making it difficult to meet the requirements of large displacement and large liquid in the process of field application. In this paper, we introduce recent research progresse of different friction reducers including polymer friction reducers, polysaccharides friction reducers, the surfactant friction reducers and nano composite friction reducers. The field application of drag reducing agent is presented; The effect of molecular weight, molecular weight distribution, molecular structure and the characteristics of ions of drag reduction agent on its performance is carefully analyzed; The mechanism of friction reducers is discussed; What’s more, the advantages and disadvantages of drag reduction agent products as well as the necessity of recycling are described. Finally the future development direction and trend of drag reduction agent is pointed out, and it is believed that the nanocomposite drag reducing agent with good stability, high drag reduction efficiency and strong anti-salt and anti-pollution ability will be the hotpot of future research. At the same time, we proposed that the increase of the recycling rate and better fracture conductivity as a consequence of improving backflow rate will also become a popular research field of drag reduction agent.