The group achieved mainstream success with their debut self-titled studio album The All-American Rejects, released in 2002 on the DreamWorks Records label.

[6] Its lead single "Gives You Hell" became The All-American Rejects' most successful song to date, peaking at number 4 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and the top 5 in many other countries.

Ritter and Wheeler put together the Same Girl, New Songs EP, which was soon sent to independent Doghouse Records, where an intern saved the disc from the trash, and revealed it to the label owner.

[17] In 2001, with producer Tim O'Heir, the band recorded their self-titled debut studio album, The All-American Rejects.

The band hit the road for eight shows in January, and DreamWorks issued a broader-scale distribution of the debut LP.

In November, the All-American Rejects joined the bands Motion City Soundtrack and Limbeck for six shows in the United Kingdom, the first date on the 16th, and the last on the 22nd.

[24] Then, on December 13, The Bite Back EP was released on the iTunes Music Store, and on New Year's Eve 2005, the band performed The Cars' "Good Times Roll" with Fall Out Boy on MTV.

Within the first weeks after premiering their video, it had been on the Total Request Live countdown, hitting number-one four days in a row.

The overall priority of the promotion was that the Rejects got kidnapped by the villainous Piraka whilst sailing on a yacht and people had to assist the Inika on finding and rescuing the band via the website 'freetheband.com'.

That New Year's Eve, the All-American Rejects performed on a special on Las Vegas' Fremont Street, which also included the bands OK Go, Five for Fighting, Rock Star Supernova, and Chicago.

The band also collaborated with composer Danny Elfman on "The Future Has Arrived", which was included on the soundtrack of Disney film Meet the Robinsons.

On July 17, 2007, the All-American Rejects released their second live DVD, titled Tournado, with content from the 2006 headlining tour of the same name.

The finished album version of the song "I Wanna" appeared in the movie, The House Bunny, which was released to theaters on August 22, 2008.

Then, on the eighteenth "Mona Lisa (When the World Comes Down)", another song from the band's upcoming album, was released digitally on iTunes.

In the first week of December, the album version of "Real World" was made available for download on Rock Band for the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3.

In May 2009, the All-American Rejects released a second single in the United States, entitled "The Wind Blows", which achieved moderate success.

In late summer the All-American Rejects joined Weezer, Fall Out Boy and Taking Back Sunday for the second half of the Blink-182 Reunion Tour.

In October 2009, the All-American Rejects were forced to cancel shows due to an injury to frontman Tyson Ritter.

He performed from a wheelchair with his leg in a brace on September 27 during a show in Tampa, Florida, amid reports suggesting the singer had undergone knee surgery to remove a tumor that had been there for many months.

Ritter made a full recovery in time to return to kick off the Battle Of The Bands Tour with Taking Back Sunday, with the first date at MSU in Michigan.

[34] The All-American Rejects announced that they will be performing their last show in support of When the World Comes Down at Hollywood, California on December 14.

In February 2010, the All-American Rejects performed live at the Vancouver Winter Olympic Games at the Whistler Medals Plaza.

The band performed at Sepang International Center in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on September 27, 2013, alongside The Wanted and Five for Fighting as part of the Arthur's Day celebrations promoted by the Guinness brewing company.

[42] Following occasional performances of touring for 18 months and a concert with Musikfest, Wheeler announced in an interview with the former that the band plans to begin recording for their fifth studio album in the fall of 2013.

The band performed at Emo Nite LA's 2nd anniversary at the Echoplex in Los Angeles, CA in December 2016.

The World" on November 20, 2020, stating that all of its proceeds would be donated to the MusiCares COVID-19 Relief Fund which aims to support employees in the music industry who have been out of work since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

On August 21, 2020, the band released a 14 song collection to Spotify titled 'Rejects Faves' that contains band-picked favorites from their four studio albums.

"[52] On January 18, 2022, The All-American Rejects were announced as part of the When We Were Young Festival with headliners Paramore and My Chemical Romance.

The band uses Sennheiser microphones, Dean Markley Custom Lights guitar strings, and Dunlop Picks.

It is also commonly used in the songs "It Ends Tonight", "Real World", "Stab My Back", "My Paper Heart", "Gives You Hell" and "Dance Inside".