A packet forwarding method includes that a first network device receives a multicast packet from a multicast source device and forwarded by a device group, where the device group includes a second network device and a third network device, and the multicast packet is forwarded to the first network device by one network device in the device group. The first network device determines, according to a reverse-path forwarding (RPF) entry, that the multicast packet is forwarded by the device group, where the RPF entry includes a first sub-entry instructing the first network device to forward the multicast packet sent by the second network device and a second sub-entry instructing the first network device to forward the multicast packet sent by the third network device. The first network device sends the multicast packet to a multicast destination device according to the RPF entry.