The present invention relates to a software upgrade method for a terminal. The method includes: receiving, by a second terminal, a first message broadcast by at least one first terminal, where the first message includes information of application software maintained by the first terminal; determining, by the second terminal according to the information of the application software maintained by the first terminal, whether there is upgradeable application software on the second terminal; when it is determined that there is upgradeable application software on the second terminal, sending an upgrade request to the first terminal; receiving, by the second terminal, an upgrade response that is returned by the first terminal according to the upgrade request, and downloading upgrade data of the upgradeable application software; and updating the application software according to the upgrade data of the upgradeable application software.