Objective To explore the effect of nine kinds of positive psychological intervention on improving depression in cancer survivors. Methods Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of positive psychological intervention to improve depression were collected from PubMed, Web of Science, CNKI and Wanfang database during January 2000 to May 2021. After two reviewers independently screened the literature, extracted the data and evaluated the risk of bias in the included studies, a net meta-analysis was performed using Stata 14.2. Results A total of 28 RCTs were included, the results of mesh meta-analysis showed that: compared with the control group, gratitude intervention (MD = -1.25, 95%CI [-3.08, -0.58], P < 0.001) had the best effect on depression in cancer survivors, followed by acceptance and commitment therapy [MD = -2.19, 95%CI (-4.24, -0.15), P = 0.002], mindfulness based cognitive therapy [MD = -2.13, 95%CI (-3.19, -0.57), P = 0.021], positive psychological therapy [MD = -1.24, 95%CI (-4.24, -1.76), P = 0.022], life review [MD = -1.77, 95%CI (-3.09, -0.44), P = 0.019], mindfulness based stress reduction [MD = -1.87, 95%CI (-3.26, -0.48), P = 0.026], reminiscence therapy [MD = -0.42, 95%CI (-1.09, -0.25), P = 0.047) compared with the control group, hope therapy [MD = -1.09, 95%CI (-4.84, 2.66), P = 0.215], meaning making intervention [MD = -0.00, 95%CI (-3.64, 2.44), P = 0.608] and there was no significant difference compared with the control group; the order of surface under the cumulative ranking for different interventions were gratitude intervention (73.3%) > acceptance and commitment therapy (66.8%) > life review (62.4%) > mindfulness based cognitive therapy (59.6%) > positive psychological therapy (53.7%) > mindfulness based stress reduction (52.0%) > hope therapy (46.1%) > meaning making intervention (37.7%) > reminiscence therapy (33.6%) > routine psychological nursing (14.8%). Gratitude intervention was the best in improving depression in cancer survivors in the short term. Conclusion The evidence suggests that gratitude intervention, mindfulness based stress reduction, cognitive therapy with mindfulness, acceptance commitment therapy and positive psychotherapy may be the best therapy to improve the depression of cancer survivors, which has the value of promotion. Meaning therapy, life review, recall therapy and hope therapy may be more suitable for palliative care patients. Appropriatepsychological intervention should be selected according to the patient’s condition.