Gastroesophageal varices (GOV) bleeding is a severe complication of portal hypertension with a high mortality rate. Animal models are indispensable tools for investigating its pathogenesis and developing novel therapeutic strategies. This article systematically reviews the methods for establishing various GOV models, with a particular focus on their efficacy in simulating the key pathological processes such as an increase in hepatic venous pressure gradient and the risk of bleeding, and it also proposes targeted strategies for model selection. Finally, this article discusses the application prospects of emerging techniques in the era of precision medicine, such as organoids and gene editing, in order to provide model selection and a theoretical reference for exploring the mechanism and clinical translation of GOV.