Wind energy is the most important renewable energy source produced by wind turbines. The optimal placement of wind turbines is a challenging binary optimization problem. Maximizing production capacity and minimizing the number of turbines (accordingly minimizing the installation cost) are the main objectives. Metaheuristic algorithms can solve binary optimization problems with optimal or near-optimal solutions. In the literature, the wind turbine placement problem (WTPP) is solved by metaheuristic algorithms from 1994 to 2020. In this work, a literature review of solving 10 × 10 and 20 × 20 grid-type WTPPs with metaheuristic algorithms is conducted. Forty-six different papers were deeply discussed and presented all the experimental results to shed light on future studies for presenting more robust metaheuristics for solving WTPPs. The key results of this review are precaution against false comparisons; presenting the current experimental results; determining the comparison parameters; and demonstrating the benchmark problem clearly. Future directions were clearly spotlighted for practitioners and researchers and new research topics for potential studies are also presented.