This review paper summarizes an overview of the theoretical, experimental and numerical state of the art on the fracture behavior of piezoelectric materials. It assesses the macro-mechanics fracture behavior of piezoelectric materials under combined mechanical and electrical loading environment. It also encompasses the current stage of computational development which has been achieved for piezoelectric modeling. An attempt is made to summarize fracture behavior under electrical, mechanical or combined electro-mechanical loading and various methods of solution for different crack problems. It also discusses various fracture controlling parameters like intensity factors KI-KIV from near tip fields, electro-mechanical J-integral and Energy Release Rate without including in-depth physics. The presented state of the art will give the current status of the structural based research in piezo-electric materials; this will encourage young researchers to understand the concepts and contribute their innovative ideas in this interesting field. © 2017 Elsevier Ltd.