Little is known about the survival benefit of relmacabtagene autoleucel (relma-cel) in the current therapeutic landscape of relapsed/refractory (r/r) follicular lymphoma (FL). The current study compared the survival outcomes of Chinese FL patients administered relma-cel in RELIANCE (NCT04089215) and usual care in a retrospective, observational, large-scale real-world study (RWS). An indirect treatment comparison was carried out for 27 patients from RELIANCE and 53 patients from the RWS in China. Additionally, a direct comparison was made with the SCHOLAR-5 study, which assessed available treatment options abroad. After propensity score matching, disease status (FLIPI2 score, histological grade, relapse status, POD24) in the relma-cel group appeared to indicate more severe disease versus the usual care group. Nevertheless, median progression-free survival (PFS) was not reached (95% CI 8.97-NR) for relma-cel versus 19.98 months (95% CI 16.03–28.98) for usual care, indicating a hazard ratio (HR) of 0.40 (95% CI 0.13–1.23). Besides, a comparative analysis of RELIANCE and SCHOLAR-5, applying available treatment options abroad, revealed an HR for PFS of 0.20 (95% CI 0.07–0.58). At 24 months, 100% of patients survived after relma-cel infusion, versus 38.2% after usual care in China and 62.7% after usual care treatment in SCHOLAR-5, respectively. Relma-cel exhibits superior survival benefits versus current conventional therapies in r/r FL patients after ≥ 2 treatment lines.