Unlike its European and South American counterparts, the winners of the CONCACAF Champions Cup does not automatically qualify for the following edition of the tournament.

The only four teams to successfully defend the title are all Mexican: América, Cruz Azul, Pachuca and Monterrey.

Each round of competition consists of a two-leg home-and-away series with the winners determined by aggregate goals over both legs.

Each phase of the knockout rounds (quarterfinals, semifinals, finals) consisted of a two-leg home-and-away series with the winner determined by aggregate goal differential.

After the creation of the United States' Major League Soccer, the competition became an eight-team knockout tournament with zonal qualification.

The first four editions were hosted in a central location with single leg ties before changing to a home-and-away format in 2002.

[3][4] The expanded tournament meant that Central American clubs would qualify directly and thus the UNCAF Interclub Cup was ended after 2007.

In the new Champions League tournament, there was a two-legged preliminary round for 16 clubs, with the eight winners advancing to the group stage.

The top two teams from each group advanced to quarterfinals of the knockout rounds, which consisted of two-legged ties.

[5] On January 12, 2012, CONCACAF announced that the 2012–13 tournament would be played under a different format than previous editions, where the preliminary round is eliminated and all qualified teams enter the group stage.

In December 2016, Manuel Quintanilla, president of the Nicaraguan Football Federation, spoke of a possible new format for the competition,[8] a statement that was later corroborated by Garth Lagerwey, the general manager of Seattle Sounders FC.

In February 2021, CONCACAF announced a major overhaul of the tournament which would have included 50 teams and a regional group stage.

[14] On 6 June 2023, it was announced that to coincide with the new format, the competition had been renamed back to CONCACAF Champions Cup.

[17] Estadio Independencia in Nicaragua has since been renovated, including upgrades to stadium lighting, and Nicaraguan teams now participate.

On 8 April 2015, Mexican side Club América broke the all time CONCACAF Champions League match attendance record when a reported 66,208 spectators gathered at the Estadio Azteca in Mexico City to watch América play Costa Rican club Herediano in the second leg of the semifinals of the 2015 edition of the tournament.

[19] This was surpassed by the Seattle Sounders FC on 4 May 2022, at Lumen Field in the final against Pumas UNAM with an announced attendance of 68,741.

[20] Starting with the 2024 edition of the competition, the winning club will receive over US$5,000,000 in prize money and financial distributions.

In 2022, the prize money paid to clubs was as follows:[22] Each year, the winning team is presented with the CONCACAF Champions Cup trophy.

43 clubs from 12 national associations have competed for the title as champions or runners-up, of which 30 clubs from 9 national associations have won at least one title (Mexico, Costa Rica, United States, El Salvador, Suriname, Honduras, Trinidad and Tobago, Guatemala, and Haiti).