Purpose Primary spinal cord glioblastoma (GBM) is a rare and devastating disease. Little attention was ever paid to this rare disease. As a result, the standard treatment protocol and prognostic factors of primary spinal cord GBM were not well established. The aim of this study was to determine the predictors associated with survival in patients with primary spinal cord GBM. Methods A total of 122 patients with primary spinal cord GBM from Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results database and our institution were included in this retrospective analysis. Information about age, sex, race, tumor invasion, extent of resection, radiation, chemotherapy and year of diagnosis was collected. Univariate and multivariate accelerated failure time (AFT) regression model was performed to identify prognostic factors. Results Of the 122 patients, 102 (83.6%) expired at the time of data collection. Overall survival at 1 year, 2 years, 3 years and 5 years was 48.4%, 22.8%, 17.1% and 8.4%, respectively, and median survival time was 12 months. Only radiation was found to be associated with survival in the AFT regression model (time ratio 1.94, 95% CI 1.01-3.72,p < 0.05). Radiotherapy could improve survival slightly; patients who received RT survived approximately two times as long as patients who did not receive RT, but the advantage was short term. Conclusion The survival of primary spinal cord GBM is poor in the current treatment strategy. Radiotherapy was associated with better survival, but the advantage was short term.