Increasing yield is one of the major tasks in crop breeding. Evaluation of the yield-related traits of barley cultivars released from the different breeding periods might provide insights in high-yield breeding. In this study, 155 Chinese barley cultivars which include Qingke (hulless barley), malting, and feed barley were evaluated for the phenotypic variations at eight yield-related traits in two environmental conditions. The significant positive correlation among the traits plant height, spike length, and rachis node per spike were observed for malting barley. Spike density significantly negatively correlated with thousand kernel weight in Qingke and malting barley. Overall, the thousand kernel weight of Chinese barley cultivars in the past 30 years showed a gradual increase trend, while the plant height and spike density constantly decreased during the breeding period. Cluster analysis suggested four categories of these cultivars, including high-stalk multi-grain group, mid/dwarf-stalk group, long-spike high-thousand kernel weight group, and long-grain lax-spike group, being coincidence with the breeding targets in production areas. Collectively, the valuation of phenotype changes during barley breeding history and its potential avenues of applications can provide insights for high-yield breeding in different ecological regions in China.