With the development of economy and society, the fourth-generation light emitting diodes (LEDs) have gained a popularity for the large space and high illumination application in ocean, port and gymnasium due to their advantages (i.e., energy saving, eco-friendly, high luminous efficiency (LE) and long lifetime). The typical LEDs are assembled by blue LED chips and phosphor converters, such as yellow phosphor Y3Al5O12:Ce3+ (YAG:Ce) mixed with organic glue. For the popularization in large space lighting, high-power LEDs (hp-LEDs) become popular. Phosphors, phosphor in glasses (PiGs), phosphor crystals and phosphor ceramics are developed as color-converters. Among them, phosphor ceramics have attracted more attentions as an advanced color-converter for hp-LED and laser diode (LD) lighting due to their merits of high temperature resistance, high thermal conductivity, high LE and fine stability, which can solve some problems regarding the application bottleneck of heat dissipation difficulty and packaging failure as well as large light source volume. YAG:Ce ceramics and mass production of practical single-Kilowatt chip-on-board (COB) light source can be produced in a large scale. High quality hp-LED lighting with a high LE and a high color rendering index (CRI) is needed. In addition, RGB display modules for developed display technologies such as Mini-LED, and head up display (HUD) also require a higher LE and a more compact volume. Research on phosphor ceramics with a high luminescence performance is ascendant.Summary and prospects Ce3+-doped garnet (YAG:Ce-based) phosphor ceramic is an ideal convertor for hp-LED/LD lighting and display. To improve its luminescence performance, many efforts have been proposed. In general, there are five main strategies. 1) The doping of Lu3+, Ga3+, Sc3+, Gd3+ or Mg2+-Si4+ into YAG:Ce regulates the crystal field and changes the splitting of Ce3+ 5d energy levels, resulting in a shift of Ce3+ emission for compensating blue or red component. For instance, YLuAG:Ce3+ green-emitting ceramics show an obvious blue-shifting from 533 nm to 519 nm and a higher thermal stability as well as LE via the substitute of Y3+ with Lu3+. 2) Co-doping red-emitting ions, such as Mn2+, Pr3+ and Cr3+, is an effective method to broaden the spectrum and compensate more red emission to improve CRI. A significant enhancement of CRI for LuAG:Ce, Mn ceramics is achieved by regulating Mn2+ content (Ra=91.0, R9=37.9), which effectively adds the red emission peaked at 590 nm and 750 nm respectively. 3) Introducing secondary phase or pores into the matrix can prolong the photoluminescence pathway and induce an enhanced light-scattering effect due to the difference in refractive index. Al2O3, MgO, MgAl2O4, BaAl2O4, HA, CaF2 and AlN are usually chosen as secondary phases. Compared to Al2O3-free YAG:Ce ceramics, the LE of Al2O3-YAG:Ce composite is increased by 27.3%, and its thermal conductivity grows from 10.2 up to 32.5 W/(m·K). 4) Ce3+ is possibly oxidized to Ce4+, resulting in a decrease of emission intensity. Controlling sintered temperature and doping of Ba2+-Si4+ pair are beneficial to eliminating oxidation and maintaining Ce3+ value state. The replace of Lu3+-Al3+ by Ba2+-Si4+ pair is favorable for less Ce4+. Consequently, Lu3Al5O12:Ce3++Ba2+/Si4+ ceramic has a high LE of 216.9 lm/W. 5) Surface treatment by grinding and polishing can yield different roughness and increase a light extraction efficiency. Based on the strategies above, high performance YAG:Ce-based phosphor ceramics are developed. To address multifunctional and multiscenario applications of LEDs, other nitride, oxide or fluoride phosphor ceramics are being investigated, such as CaAlSiN3:Eu2+, (Ca, Sr, Ba)2Si5N8:Eu2+, Y2O3:Eu3+, Al2O3:Mn4+ and (K, Na, Cs)2(Si, Ti,)F6:Mn4+. These developed phosphor ceramics provide unique properties and good candidates for certain applications.In near future, phosphor ceramics, especially for YAG:Ce-based, will play an important role in LED/LD lighting and display. In response to the requirement of higher performance, involving power density, brightness and quality, it is also necessary to explore and optimize some phosphor ceramics. For phosphor ceramic material, several main methods are outlined to improve the luminescence performance, i.e., the introduction of secondary phases or pores; investigating and developing new phosphor ceramic system; utilizing theoretical calculation to accelerate research progress and optimize photoluminescence properties; extending the application to emerging lighting and display (i.e., laser projection and AR-HUD). In this review, recent research progress and application of phosphor ceramics for LED/LD lighting and display were summarized, and optimizing strategies and development trends of phosphor ceramics were also prospected.