The carbon dioxide (CO 2 )-based demand-controlled ventilation (DCV) has attracted prompt attention from the Heating, Ventilation, and Air-Conditioning (HVAC) industry since its very first invention. Thereafter it has gone through several revolutions due to the rapid advancement in control and sensing technologies. Although a great variety of CO 2 -based DCV control strategies have been developed in the last two decades, there lacks a holistic literature review that systematically analyzes and summarizes advances and applications of CO 2 -based DCV in commercial buildings. This paper examines the recent advances in the CO 2 -based DCV in commercial buildings and focuses on discussing the control-related issues in the applications of the CO 2 -based DCV by collecting and assessing the available case studies in the recent two decades in terms of principles, complexity, and performance. First, principles of the different CO 2 -based DCV control strategies are elaborated, and their application scenarios are summarized from the case studies. Second, advancements in sensing technologies and actuating control devices are presented. On top of that, performance evaluation of the CO 2 -based DCV is conducted to (1) quantify the benefit achieved from the state-of-the-art CO 2 -based DCV; and (2) identify common issues and challenges associated with the design and field implementation of the CO 2 -based DCV. Finally, conclusions, limitations, and perspectives for future research are summarized. • Focused on discussing control-related issues in CO 2 -based DCV. • Classified and reviewed different CO 2 -based DCV control strategies. • Reviewed the advancements and challenges of CO 2 sensing in DCV. • Conducted performance evaluation of CO 2 -based DCV control strategies. • Summarized limitations and perspectives for future research.