The invention discloses a synthetic method of an etoricoxib intermediate 4-methylsulfonyl acetophenone, wherein the comprises the following steps: step 1, adding anhydrous aluminum trichloride and acetyl chloride in a dichloromethane system to obtain a reaction solution; step 2, dropwise adding the reaction solution into thioanisole into the reaction solution; step 3, standing for liquid separation, extracting a water phase by using dichloromethane, combining organic phases, and washing the combined organic phases by using a 10% sodium bicarbonate aqueous solution; step 4, evaporating the washed organic phase to dryness, adding n-heptane, crystallizing, washing, and drying to obtain acetylphenylmethyl sulfide; and step 5, adding the acetylphenylmethyl sulfide obtained in the step 4 into an acetone system, and further reacting to obtain 4-methylsulfonyl acetophenone; or adding the acetylphenylmethyl sulfide obtained in the step 4 into an acetic acid system, and stirring for dissolving to obtain a reaction mixture; and further reacting to obtain the 4-methylsulfonyl acetophenone. The energy consumption is reduced, the reaction is more stable, and the benefit is high.