In this work, ø 3 mm × 70 mm (Zr63.36Cu14.52Ni10.12Al12)1−xYx (x = 0, 0.2, 0.5, 0.6, 1, 1.2, 1.5, 2, and 3 at.%) rod-shaped bulk metallic glasses (BMGs) were fabricated using the copper mold suction casting method and the effects of the addition of Y on the properties of Zr-based BMGs were studied. The results indicate that the properties of Zr-based BMGs can be enormously improved by the addition of an appropriate amount of the rare earth Y element. The values of the supercooled liquid region width (ΔTx), glass-forming ability (GFA) parameter (γ), thermoplastic forming (TPF) ability parameter (S), and plastic strain (εp) for the alloy with x = 0.6 reach 115 K, 0.390, 0.228, and 16.5 %, respectively, and are much higher than those of the alloy with x = 0, indicating that the alloy with x = 0.6 exhibits excellent thermal stability, glass-forming ability, thermoplastic forming ability, and compressive plasticity. It was also found that the alloy with x = 1.5 has the minimum corrosion current (icorr = 1.12 × 10 −9 A cm −2 ), showing excellent corrosion resistance. Overall, the alloy with the Y content of x = 0.6 demonstrates excellent thermal stability, GFA, TPF ability, mechanical properties, and corrosion resistance, thus displaying improved comprehensive properties.