The + 443 m B3-6 working face of Wudong Coal Mine is a horizontal section fully-mechanized caving face in nearly vertical extra-thick coal seam. In order to improve the top coal recovery rate and mining efficiency of fully-mechanized caving face, the top coal migration characteristics of + 443 m B3-6 working face in Wudong Coal Mine under different caving rounds were studied and analyzed by means of theoretical analysis and numerical simulation. The results show that the use of multiple rounds of coal caving can reduce the height of coal caving, make the coal-rock interface formed after coal caving move down gently, weaken the lagging development characteristics of the coal-rock interface in the middle of the working face, and help to expand the tangent range between the caving body and the coal-rock interface, so as to improve the top coal recovery rate in the middle of the working face. With the increase of the number of coal caving rounds, the position where the coal-rock interface begins to lag behind is later; compared with single wheel caving, the residual coal in the middle of the working face is greatly reduced when three or more wheels are used. Multi-round coal caving can significantly reduce the amount of residual coal on the roof side of the working face, which can reduce more than 50 % of the residual coal on the roof side compared with single-round coal caving. For the recovery rate of top coal, multiple rounds of coal caving can improve the recovery rate of even frames, and with the increase of the number of coal caving rounds, the recovery rate of even frames of top coal increases gradually; the overall recovery rate of the working face increases first and then decreases with the increase of coal drawing rounds. Based on the comprehensive theoretical analysis, numerical simulation and on-site construction, the + 443 m B3-6 working face of Wudong Coal Mine should choose the three-wheel interval coal caving process to improve the top coal recovery rate. Compared with the single-wheel interval coal caving, the top coal recovery rate can be increased by more than 2 %. The research results provide a basis for guiding the reasonable coal caving selection and improving the recovery rate of top coal in Wudong Coal Mine.