BACKGROUND: Proper prognostic biomarker is of great importance for clinical decision-making in patients with acute myocardial infarction (AMI) undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). Although recently emerges plenty of novel inflammatory biomarkers, the canonical inflammatory mediator C-reactive protein still plays an important role in prognosing adverse post-infarction complications. METHODS: PubMed, Embase, and Medline were systematically searched from the establishment of databases up to December 2021, conforming with standards set forth by the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) statement. RESULTS: A total of 23 studies were eventually eligible for this meta-analysis, including 18,715 individuals. Our findings showed that elevated C-reactive protein (CRP) had a statistically significant superiority in predicting all-cause mortality (OR: 3.22, 95% CI: [2.71, 3.84], < 0.00001), cardiovascular death (OR: 3.26, 95% CI: [2.30, 4.61], < 0.00001), major adverse cardiovascular events (MACEs) (OR: 2.85, 95% CI [2.08, 3.90], < 0.00001), heart failure (OR: 2.29, 95% CI: [1.48, 3.54], = 0.0002), recurrent myocardial infarction (OR: 1.76, 95% CI: [1.28, 2.43], < 0.001), and restenosis (OR: 1.71, 95% CI: [1.18, 2.47], = 0.004). Subgroup analysis implies that CRP had better performance in predicting plenty of hospitalization and short-term (<12 months) adverse prognosis than long-term prognosis and Asian patients with elevated CRP were under more risk in adverse prognosis after PCI than Europeans. CONCLUSION: Our meta-analysis suggests that CRP is a prospective predictor of the prognosis in patients with AMI undergoing PCI, especially in hospitalization and short-term and in the Asian group.