Aims <p>The home-field advantage (HFA) hypothesis proposes faster litter decomposition in native (‘home’) than in foreign (‘away’) habitats. Understanding the patterns and main drivers of HFA is essential to understand nutrient cycling in soil ecosystems. We conducted a comprehensive global-scale assessment of HFA effect on litter mass loss and nutrient release patterns across major biomes. Then, we explored how soil fauna and decomposition duration influenced the magnitude of HFA.</p> Methods <p>We collected data from 32 published studies containing 862 observations that tested the magnitude of HFA. Then, we conducted a model selection to identify crucial factors of HFA.</p> Results <p>Globally, we found that litter decomposition was 3.0% higher at home than away. HFA differed across biomes, with subtropical deserts having a stronger HFA (18.48%) than temperate rain forests (-106%, negative HFA). Low litter C:N ratios and low mean annual precipitation were negatively associated with HFA, which indicated that high-quality litter and litter from dry biomes reduced HFA. In terms of litter mass loss, soil fauna and decomposition duration were key determinants of HFA. The presence of soil fauna had negative effects on HFA, and as litter decomposition progressed, decomposition rate decreased at home. Regarding nutrient release from litter, decomposition duration was the main driver of HFA. Our results showed that nitrogen (N) loss rates were significantly higher in home during decomposition.</p> Conclusions <p>We highlight the importance of HFA in litter decomposition and advance our mechanistic understanding of interaction between litter and decomposer communities across biomes under changing climatic conditions.</p>