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Compared to conventional martensitic wear‐resistant steels of the same hardness, high‐titanium wear‐resistant steels with in situ TiC particles can significantly improve wear resistance. However, micron‐sized TiC particles will decrease the toughness of high‐titanium wear‐resistant steels. Here, in order to improve wear resistance without reducing impact toughness, we incorporate 0.0025% cerium elements into high‐titanium wear‐resistant steels. Compared with no cerium steel, the steel containing cerium is demonstrating comparable mechanical properties, with the yield strength of 1283 MPa and impact toughness of 35.6 J, and the wear performance of the steel containing cerium is 1.78 times that of the steel with no cerium. The results show that with the addition of cerium the effective grain size of the steel decreases, and yield strength and toughness increase. The addition of cerium can form intermetallic compounds of Ce2O2S, which are used as heterogeneous nuclear particles in TiC to form rare earth composite particles calculated by the 2D mismatch theoretical model of Bramfitt. As the average spacing of the reinforcing phase particles in the steel decreases, the effective grain size of the steel decreases, and the number of reinforcing phase particles increases, the wear resistance of the steel with the addition of cerium is optimized. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]