To provide an outboard motor control device that reduces an operation burden of a maneuvering driver at a shift lever operation by properly executing control for reducing a drive force of an internal combustion engine, and prevents the operation of the internal combustion engine from being unstable.

In the outboard motor in which a shift position is engaged with forward and reverse gears and which can switch an in-gear position in which the drive force of the internal combustion engine is transmitted to a propeller and a neutral position in which the transmission of the drive force is blocked, a neutral operation in which the shift position is switched to the neutral position from the in-gear position is detected (S206, S208), drive force lowering control for lowering the drive force of the internal combustion engine is executed when the neutral operation is detected (S210), and when the number NE of engine revolutions of the internal combustion engine is lowered to a prescribed number NEa of revolutions or lower, or when the drive force lowering control is executed a prescribed number of times or more, the drive force lowering control is stopped (S218 to S230).