Rare earth doped chalcogenide glass-ceramics possess advantages for luminescence regulation because of their low phonon energy and sulfide nanocrystals. Here, 80GeS₂·20Ga₂S₃ chalcogenide glasses and glass-ceramics doped with different mole fractions Er³⁺ ions were prepared and investigated via advanced structure and performance characterization. Effect of rare earth content and crystallization on the up-conversion luminescence of Er³⁺ ions was discussed accordingly. The results show that the introduction of Er causes the decreasing glass transition temperature and onset temperature of crystallization peak, leading to the presence of stronger diffraction peaks corresponding to Ga₂S₃ phase in the samples containing more Er³⁺ ions. The crystallization of Ga₂S₃ nanocrystals enhances the up-conversion by nearly 5 times, and the optimal luminescence doping mole fraction increases from 0.75% to 1%.