As global industry enters the digital era, automation is becoming increasingly pervasive. Due to their superior efficiency and reliability, Permanent Magnet Synchronous Motors (PMSMs) are playing an increasingly prominent role in industrial applications. Sliding Mode Control (SMC) has emerged as a modern control strategy that is widely employed not only in PMSM drive systems, but also across broader power and industrial control domains. This technique effectively mitigates key challenges associated with PMSMs, such as nonlinear behavior and susceptibility to external disturbances, thereby enhancing the precision of speed and torque regulation. This paper provides a thorough review and evaluation of recent advancements in SMC as applied to PMSM control. It outlines the fundamentals of SMC, explores various SMC-based strategies, and introduces integrated approaches that combine SMC with optimization algorithms. Furthermore, it compares these methods, identifying their respective strengths and limitations. This paper concludes by discussing current trends and potential future developments in the application of SMC for PMSM systems.