Quantum simulation has been developed extensively over the past decades, widely applied to different models to explore dynamics in the quantum regime. Rydberg atoms have strong dipole–dipole interactions and interact with each other over a long distance, which makes it straightforward to build many-body interacting quantum systems to simulate specific models. Additionally, neutral atoms are easily manipulated due to their weak interactions. These advantages make Rydberg many-body system an ideal platform to implement quantum simulations. This paper reviews several quantum simulations for different models based on Rydberg many-body systems, including quantum Ising models in one dimension and two dimensions mainly for quantum magnetism, XY model for excitation transport, SSH model for symmetry-protected topological phases, and critical self-organized behaviors in many-body systems. Besides, some challenges and promising directions of quantum simulations based on Rydberg many-body system are discussed in this paper.