The microstructure and properties of thin films prepared by magnetron sputtering are usually sensitive to not only sputtering power and working pressure, but also the incident direction. In this work, ZrB2 thin films were prepared by DC magnetron sputtering at same sputtering parameters but substrate inclined from 0° to 30°. The deposition rate, microstructure, electrical and optical properties were investigated in details. XPS analysis demonstrates that all the prepared ZrB2 films are B-rich in compositions. Microstructure characterization shows the ZrB2 films deposited at bigger oblique angles are with better crystallization and bigger surface roughness, the former leads to the films with lower resistivity, the latter leads to the films with stronger absorbing ability in the UV–vis-NIR wavelength band. Adjusting substrate to a suitable oblique angle is a promising method to achieve higher quality ZrB2 films..