Fluorescent carbon dots (CDs) have recently become a research hotspot in multidisciplinary fields owing to their distinctive advantages, including outstanding photoluminescence properties, high biocompatibility, low toxicity, and abundant raw materials. Among the promising CDs, narrow-bandwidth emissive CDs with high color purity have emerged as a rising star in recent years because of their significant potential applications in bioimaging, information sensing, and photoelectric displays. In this review, the state-of-the-art advances of narrow-bandwidth emissive CDs are systematically summarized, and the factors influencing the emission bandwidth, preparation methods, and applications of narrow-bandwidth emissive CDs are described in detail. Besides, existing challenges and future perspectives for achieving high-performance narrow-bandwidth emissive CDs are also discussed. This overview paper is expected to generate more interest and promote the rapid development of this significant research area.