[11] The first sporting event held at the stadium was on 6 March 1999 when a then-record rugby league football crowd of 104,583 watched the NRL first round double-header, featuring Newcastle v Manly and Parramatta v St George Illawarra Dragons.

The attendance broke the old record of 102,569 set at the Odsal Stadium in Bradford, England for the Challenge Cup Final replay between Warrington and Halifax held on 5 May 1954.

The first musical act held at the newly built stadium was the Bee Gees, consisting of Barry, Robin and Maurice Gibb, on 27 March 1999.

[12] The stadium was not officially opened until 12 June 1999 when the Australian National Soccer team played the FIFA All Stars.

In 2000, this was bettered when a near-capacity crowd of 109,874 (capacity at the time was 110,000) witnessed the "greatest ever rugby match"[13] when a Jonah Lomu try sealed an All Blacks win over the Wallabies 39–35.

An exhibition soccer match between the Australia national team and English club Manchester United was played on 18 July 1999.

The match, Game 2 of the three-game series, saw the record Origin attendance in Sydney when 88,336 saw the Blues christen their new home with a 12–8 win.

The 1999 National Rugby League grand final, played on 26 September between the Melbourne Storm and the St George Illawarra Dragons, broke the rugby league world-record crowd previously set earlier in the season when 107,999 came to watch the Storm defeat the Dragons 20–18 to win their first NRL premiership.

Musical acts for the closing ceremony were a "who's who" of Australian music including Kylie Minogue, John Williamson, John Paul Young, Jimmy Barnes, Midnight Oil, INXS (with Jon Stevens), Men at Work, and Slim Dusty who sang Waltzing Matilda.

Also in attendance on stage during the Closing ceremony were other famous Australian's including golfer Greg Norman and comedian-actor Paul Hogan.

On 5 October 2008, the Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles defeated the Melbourne Storm 40–0 in the 2008 NRL Grand Final in front of 80,388 fans.

On 6 July 2013 a new rectangle configuration record attendance of 83,702 watched the British & Irish Lions defeat Australia 41–16 to win the Tom Richards Cup series by 2–1.

The record set by the Wallabies test was broken just 10 days later on 17 July when 83,813 (only 187 short of capacity) attended Game 3 of the 2013 State of Origin series.

This was also the largest single game minor round crowd in the history of the premiership dating back to 1908, breaking the previous record set at the ANZ Stadium in Brisbane (now known as the Queensland Sport and Athletics Centre) on 27 August 1993 when St George defeated Brisbane 16–10 in Round 22 of the 1993 NSWRL season in front of 58,593 fans.

82,758 people, many of whom had travelled down from various parts of Queensland, witnessed one of the all-time great grand finals when the game went into golden point time courtesy of a Kyle Feldt try in the dying moments to level the scores at 16 all.

But the game would be remembered for Ben Hunt's dropped ball from the kick-off to extra time which led to Johnathan Thurston's field goal that gave North Queensland their first premiership in the NRL since being admitted into the competition in 1995.

On 30 September 2018, the Grand Final between the Sydney Roosters and the Melbourne Storm featured one of the most courageous performances in Australian sporting history when Cooper Cronk, despite carrying a severe shoulder injury from the week before, played for nearly the entire match, inspiring his Roosters to a famous 21–6 victory over his former club and at the same time denying the Storm back to back premierships.

[18][19] In October 2001, major reconfiguration work on the stadium was commenced to allow for sports that require an oval field, such as cricket and Australian rules football, to be played at the ground.

[22] In 2023, upgrades of the match day change rooms and media facilities were completed at a cost of $81.4 million ahead of the 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup and were first used for a NRL game between South Sydney and Manly Warringah on 25 March 2023.

The announcement was made in conjunction with the unveiling of rebuilding plans for the Sydney Football Stadium in Moore Park.

On 29 March 2018 NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian backflipped on the rebuilding plan, and revealed the government would instead refurbish Stadium Australia and reconfigure the pitch dimensions to a permanently rectangular shape.

[27] The decision meant the stadium remained capable of hosting oval-shaped sports such as cricket and Australian rules football, and retain its capacity to 83,500.

The stadium hosted Australia's 2005 shootout victory over Uruguay in the OFC-CONMEBOL intercontinental play-off, which qualified the Socceroos for the 2006 FIFA World Cup, their first appearance since 1974.

The venue hosted the 2000 Olympics football gold medal match, with Cameroon defeating Spain 5–3 on penalties.

Arsenal would play Western Sydney Wanderers in the stadium two days later, with the English side winning 3–1 in front of a crowd of 83,221.

Premier League side Manchester United defeated the A-League All Stars 5-1 in front of a crowd of 83,127 on 20 July 2013.

The stadium also hosted four knock-out matches of the 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup, including the final between Spain and England.

A temporary 400 metres (440 yards) long track was used with American rider Greg Hancock winning the GP from England's Scott Nicholls and Australia's own future triple World Champion Jason Crump whose third place was enough to lift him to third in the championship standings above fellow Aussie Ryan Sullivan.

[45] When it was known as Stadium Australia, the venue hosted the American Bowl on 7 August 1999 between the Denver Broncos and the San Diego Chargers.

[46] On 27 August 2016, the stadium hosted the Sydney Cup—a season-opening 2016 NCAA Division I FBS college football game between the California Golden Bears and the Hawaii Rainbow Warriors.