Evidence about the clinical effects of entecavir (ETV) for patients with hepatitis B decompensated cirrhosis remain controversial. Therefore, we perform this meta-analysis to assess the treatment outcomes of ETV in participants with hepatitis B decompensated cirrhosis. Relevant studies were identified by searching databases until the March 2016. A random-effects model was used to estimate summary relative risks (RRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs). GRADEprofiler3.6 was used to evaluate the quality of the evidence. A total of 26 studies (involving 2040 patients) were included. The quality of the evidence was classified from very low to high by the GRADED approach for all included RCTs. Meta-analysis showed that patients were more likely to experience HBV-DNA loss (RR:1.85, 95%CIs: 1.41 to 2.43, P < 0.0001 at 48 weeks), have normalized alanine aminotransferase levels (ALT) (P = 0.003 at 24 weeks, P = 0.02 at 48 weeks), and have a low mortality rate at 24 weeks (P = 0.003) when treated with ETV. There was no significant different between ETV and the control groups at the total mortality (P = 0.06) and HBeAg seroconversion (P = 0.14). In conclusion, ETV could be the first line therapy for patients with HBV related decompensated cirrhosis, because ETV could reduce the early mortality and move HBV DNA load down.