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In the past 2 decades, over 150 new cities built from scratch have been launched in more than 40 countries. As this trend has intensified in recent years, scholarship on new city projects has expanded significantly in exciting new directions. There is now a conceptually robust and empirically vibrant body of scholarship that critically examines new city projects around the world. This article provides an overview of an emerging subfield and introduces important new approaches to understanding the proliferation of these urban mega‐developments, and how the study of new cities can yield insights into both international urban, economic, cultural, and political trends, and specific local dynamics. In this article, we highlight the key contributions and insights from recent scholarship on new city projects and map out areas for future research.