The Chiefs teams play in red, black and yellow colours with jerseys in recent years having strong Māori cultural elements to tie the club to its region.
In 2013, the Chiefs became the fourth team to record back-to-back title wins, when they defeated the Brumbies 27–22 at Waikato Stadium.
The Chiefs Manawa won the inaugural season of Sky Super Rugby Aupiki in 2022 and were runner-up in the competition in 2023 and 2024.
In the first year of competition the Chiefs placed 6th in the overall standings, missing out on making the finals; winning 6 of their 11 regular season matches.
The changes had an immediate impact as the Chiefs finished at the top of the New Zealand conference, qualifying for a home semi-final, which they won, defeating the Crusaders 20–17.
They subsequently hosted the final for the first time in the teams's history, comprehensively defeating the Sharks by 37 – 6, claiming their first title.
[3] In 2013, the Chiefs again won the Super Rugby title and the New Zealand conference with a regular-season record of 12 wins and four losses.
They also won the BNZ Cup, a new trophy established by the NZRU for the New Zealand side with the best record in intra-conference matches.
They won a thriller quarter final against the Stormers in Cape Town (17-11) but lost in the semi-finals to the Crusaders (27-13) In 2018 the Chiefs finished 3rd in the NZ conference and 5th overall.
This result put them through to the quarter-finals, in which they lost a tight battle against the Hurricanes (32-31) The Chiefs didn't have a great start to the 2019 season, losing 4 games straight off the bat, including a loss to the Sunwolves (30-15).
Since 1999, the Chiefs have represented the provincial unions of Bay of Plenty, Counties Manukau, King Country, Thames Valley and Waikato.
From 1996 to 1998 the Chiefs also represented North Harbour and Northland, with Counties Manukau and Thames Valley falling under the Auckland Blues catchment.
Had the Blues been allowed to represent the Auckland, North Harbour, Counties Manukau and Northland unions, they would have been able to field almost a full national team due to player contracting rules at the time.
In an effort by the NZRU to make things more fair, the Chiefs were given North Harbour and Northland, while the Blues were given Counties Manukau and Thames Valley.
By 1999, clear regional dominance of national team players no longer existed, so North Harbour and Northland were 'returned' to the Blues in exchange for Counties Manukau and Thames Valley.
[10][11] ^4 Super Rugby Aotearoa adopted the same format in 2021 as the inaugural tournament in 2020, with the addition of a final between the top two ranked teams at the conclusion of the round robin stage.