Soil consumption of atmospheric methane plays an important secondary role in regulating the atmospheric CH₄ budget, next to the dominant loss mechanism involving reaction with the hydroxyl radical (OH). Here we used a process-based biogeochemistry model to quantify soil consumption during the 20th and 21st centuries. We estimated that global soils consumed 32–36 Tg CH₄ yr⁻¹ during the 1990s. Natural ecosystems accounted for 84% of the total consumption, and agricultural ecosystems only consumed 5 Tg CH₄ yr⁻¹ in our estimations. During the twentieth century, the consumption rates increased at 0.03–0.20 Tg CH₄ yr⁻² with seasonal amplitudes increasing from 1.44 to 3.13 Tg CH₄ month⁻¹. Deserts, shrublands, and xeric woodlands were the largest sinks. Atmospheric CH₄ concentrations and soil moisture exerted significant effects on the soil consumption while nitrogen deposition had a moderate effect. During the 21st century, the consumption is predicted to increase at 0.05-1.0 Tg CH₄ yr⁻², and total consumption will reach 45–140 Tg CH₄ yr⁻¹ at the end of the 2090s, varying under different future climate scenarios. Dry areas will persist as sinks, boreal ecosystems will become stronger sinks, mainly due to increasing soil temperatures. Nitrogen deposition will modestly reduce the future sink strength at the global scale. When we incorporated the estimated global soil consumption into our chemical transport model simulations, we found that nitrogen deposition suppressed the total methane sink by 26 Tg during the period 1998–2004, resulting in 6.6 ppb higher atmospheric CH₄ mixing ratios compared to without considering nitrogen deposition effects. On average, a cumulative increase of every 1 Tg soil CH₄ consumption decreased atmospheric CH₄ mixing ratios by 0.26 ppb during the period 1998–2004.