As important bearing units of bridges and buildings, the monitoring of the stress state of bridge cables and prestressing strands is essential to ensure the safe operation of the facilities. In this study, according to the characteristic of the existence of a great value of the force-induced magnetic induction intensity with the change of magnetic field in the Villari reversal, a stress characterization method based on force-induced magnetic induction intensity is proposed and reveals the relationship between the change of the force-induced magnetic induction intensity at the point of Villari reversal point and the applied stress. A stress characterization model based on Villari reversal was established for high-carbon steel wire. The results show that the force-induced magnetic induction intensity of steel wire is approximately linear with the stress. The results are helpful to further understand the influence of stress on the magnetic properties of ferromagnetic materials and have practical guiding significance for the stress characterization of ferromagnetic materials.