Bacteria and fungi are the primary consumers and, thus, the decomposition pathways are described accordinglyas bacterial-based or fungal-based energy channels. However, the fungi to bacteria ratios (F: B), which indicatedeither by microbial biomass, respiration, or growth, represents only a snapshot of the whole energy channelduring a given period rather than the cumulative contribution. Even the energy channel biomass only takes intoaccount one dimension without considering the time. We believe that the F: B ratio has been misinterpreted in anecological sense due to a lack of a clear definition. Here, we estimated the F: B biomass ratios, production ratios(microbial biomass multiplied by the turnover rate) and assimilation ratios (the sum of microbial production andrespiration) using a dataset from 192 relevant studies. The F: B biomass ratios varied from 0.106 to 9.080,depending on the methods used. Based on direct microscopy method, the fungal/(fungal + bacterial) productionand assimilation ratios ranged from 0.39 to 54.78% and 0.25–45.05%, respectively; while, those ratios based onphospholipids fatty acids (PLFAs) method were 0.06–5.51% and 0.04–0.66%, respectively. We conclude thatbacteria contributes greater to the energy flow in terrestrial ecosystems compared with fungi based on the F: Bassimilation. The relative contribution of bacteria and fungi can be better evaluated using the F: B assimilationratio, rather than the biomass ratio or production ratio. Nevertheless, there are still uncertainties in the esti mations of microbial production and assimilation due to their complicated responses to soil fauna activities. Theregulation of soil fauna on microbial biomass, turnover rate and respiration, and associated changes in theenergy allocations in the soil food web should be emphasised in future studies.