Recently, the prognostic value of the neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) has been widely evaluated in many cancers. Here we assessed the prognostic value of pretreatment NLR in melanoma.A range of online databases was systematically searched up to March,2018 for identify available studies which assessed the prognostic significance of NLR. Data from studies reporting a hazard ratio (HR) and 95% confidence interval (CI) were weighted by generic inverse-variance and pooled in random effects meta-analysis.Twelve studies with 4593 individuals were included. Patients with elevated NLR had a significantly shorter overall survival (OS) (HR: 1.56, 95% CI: 1.28–1.90, p < .001) and disease-free survival (DFS)/progression-free survival (PFS) (HR = 1.86; 95% CI = 1.24–2.80; P = .003). Subgroup analyses showed that the negative prognostic effect of elevated NLR on OS remained substantial in North American and Europen populations and patients with non-metastatic and metastatic stage. Additionally, elevated NLR was related to worse OS in patients with melanoma, regardless of the sample size and the cut-off value.Our findings suggest that elevated pretreatment NLR was associated with poor prognosis in melanoma patients, suggesting NLR might be a prognostic factor in patients with melanoma.