Sugarcane (Saccharum spp. hybrid) is an important C4 crop in the Poaceae family and represents one of the world's most economically significant crops, contributing ~80% of global sugar production and 40% of fuel ethanol. Given the increasing demand for sugar and bioenergy, coupled with climate change and limited arable land, the improvement of sugarcane yield has become a pressing necessity. Plant architecture, the morphological characteristics formed during growth and development, is crucial for crop yield. However, the dissection and application of architecture improvement in sugarcane breeding have lagged behind significantly due to the complex genome, narrow genetic background, and long breeding cycles. Recent advances in genome sequencing, genome editing, multi-omics technologies, and artificial intelligence-driven methods hold great promise for sugarcane breeding through architecture improvement in the future. Here, we highlight the sugarcane architecture characteristics crucial for yield and mechanization, propose the ideal plant architecture (IPA) of sugarcane, and discuss the difficulties, opportunities and strategies for shaping the sugarcane IPA.