Until now, the relationship of obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA) with diabetic retinopathy (DR) was controversial. This meta-analysis was performed to obtain definitive conclusion on this topic. Relevant articles were searched on databases of Pubmed, Google Scholar, and Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI). The articles were selected according to inclusion and exclusion criteria. Odds ratio (OR) with 95% confidence interval (CI) was used to evaluate the relationship of OSA with risk of DR. I2 and P value were used to assess the presence of heterogeneity. I2 ≥ 50% or P < 0.05 indicated significant heterogeneity. Sensitivity analysis was performed to evaluate the robustness of pooled results. Begg's funnel plot and Egger's regression analysis were adopted to assess publication bias. 6 eligible studies were selected in the present meta-analysis. The pooled results indicated that OSA was significantly associated with increased risk of DR (OR = 2.01, 95% CI = 1.49-2.72). Subgroup analysis based on type of diabetes mellitus suggested that OSA was related to DR in both Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes mellitus. Sensitivity analysis demonstrated that pooled results were robust. No significant publication bias was observed (P = 0.128). The results indicate that OSA is related to increased risk of DR.