Provided are an array substrate, a display panel, a display apparatus and a preparation method therefor. The array substrate comprises: a base substrate; and multiple pixel units arranged on one side of the base substrate, each of the pixel units comprising: a thin-film transistor and an electroluminescent structure, and a shading structure located between the thin-film transistor and the base substrate, wherein the thin-film transistor comprises: an active layer located on one side, away from the base substrate, of the shading structure; the electroluminescent structure comprises: first electrodes for driving the pixel units; and one of the shading structure and the active layer is a same-layer structure fabricated by the same mask plate as the first electrodes so as to reduce the number of mask procedures required in preparation of an array substrate.