Privately protected areas (PPAs) are increasingly recognized as important conservation initiatives, as evidenced by recent developments that support recognizing and documenting them alongside protected areas under other governance types. Advances in guidance on PPAs have been accompanied by increasing support within international policy arenas, and more PPAs are being reported to the World Database on Protected Areas (WDPA). Despite this, national approaches to recognizing and supporting PPAs vary, as does the extent to which countries report on PPAs to the WDPA. We present recent advances that support PPAs at the international level, summarize the present state of PPA reporting to the WDPA, and discuss the challenges and opportunities that currently characterize the future of PPAs.