Recently, there has been a growing interest to mimic highly stiff natural tissues, such as tendons or cartilage, whose elastic moduli lie in the MPa and GPa range, respectively. As a result, the field of hydrogels has experienced a shift towards tough hydrogels with enhanced mechanical properties, such as high stiffness, (fracture) toughness, and elasticity, which boost the hydrogel's resilience towards extreme mechanical impacts and loadbearing applications. To fabricate such tough hydrogels, strategies to dissipate energy throughout the network are necessary. Efficient energy dissipation has been achieved by using sacrificial bonds that transform the kinetic energy of a mechanical impact into chemical energy to (reversibly) Overview of published works that meet the search criteria of "tough hydrogels" within the last 20 years. Citation Report graphic is derived from Clarivate Web of Science, Copyright Clarivate 2023. All rights reserved. Mechanical stress causing energy dissipation in A) conventional hydrogels, B) double networks and C) non-covalently cross-linked networks.