In today's world of multimedia communication, the use of multiple modes of discourse is prevalent in various fields. The international academic community has taken an interest in studying multimodality from different perspectives. This paper uses CiteSpace 6.1.R6 to visually analyze literature on multimodal discourse studies (MDS) in the Web of Science (WoS) Core Collection from 1997 to 2023. The results show a significant increase in English research papers on MDS over the past two decades, a development made possible through collaborative efforts and knowledge-sharing among scholars from different regions and institutions. MDS conducted by scholars from across the world reveals diverse research categories and highlights hot issues and social practices. Consequently, the discipline has produced significant social value. The analyses of keywords and literature further reveal that MDS mainly explores language education, politics, children's education, identity construction, and media. Additionally, the most cited literature on MDS plays a fundamental role in guiding scholars across the world to understand the key concepts of multimodality and to conduct multimodal discourse analysis from different perspectives. This research provides valuable insights for scholars engaged in or interested in multimodal discourse analysis worldwide, helping them understand MDS's evolution while offering significant implications for conducting research on multimodal discourse.