The books consist of a series of detailed double-page spread illustrations depicting dozens or more people doing a variety of amusing things at a given location.

Readers are challenged to find a character named Wally (or Waldo) and his friends hidden throughout the pages.

Wally is identified by his red-and-white-striped shirt, bobble hat, and glasses, but many illustrations contain red herrings involving deceptive use of red-and-white striped objects.

[2] In 1986, illustrator Martin Handford, a graduate of the University for the Creative Arts in Kent, was asked by his art director, David Bennett, at Walker Books in London, to develop a book of detailed crowd scenes, inspired by Bennett having seen Philippe Dupasquier's Busy Places series.

[7] As the series goes on, Wally progressively becomes harder to find, reducing his size on the page and surrounding him by more characters.

Wally is even harder to spot when shrunk to this degree, and later printings included a free magnifying lens.

In 1997, to coincide with the publication of The Wonder Book, special "Tenth Anniversary Editions" of the first four books were published with a distinct silver border on their front covers, and added later-introduced characters and objects to look for in every scene, and also moved Wally to different locations from the original versions.

In 2007, for the 20th anniversary of the first book, the special editions of 1997 (and The Great Picture Hunt) were re-released with a new cover into paperback format.

A series of geographical magazines for children was published in the United Kingdom, Ukraine, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Portugal, Poland, Brazil, Spain, France, Hungary, Czech Republic, Malta, Bulgaria and Russia, called Wally's World.

In each issue Wally travelled to a different country or region of the world giving the reader interesting facts.

was turned into a Sunday newspaper comic/puzzle, drawn by Stephan Martinière, and distributed by King Features Syndicate.

[15] The strip was later translated and reworked for international markets, including releases in book form in the US, using the regional name 'Waldo'.

The dialogue and theme song were recorded in alternative Wally versions, with the same voice cast of the original US production, in order to market the show in the UK.

[16] The voice cast includes Joshua Rush as the voice of Waldo, Haley Tju as Wenda, Eva Carlton as Odlulu (the female equivalent to Odlaw), Thomas Lennon as Wizard Whitebeard and Ian James Corlett as Woof.

In June 2009, Universal Studios (who would later obtain ownership of the property through its acquisition of Classic Media's owner DreamWorks Animation in 2016) and Illumination had acquired the rights to turn Where's Wally?

[21] Screenwriter Todd Berger has been hired to write the story for the film, which was slated to be released in the summer of 2015.

[22] In March 2016, Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg were in talks to produce the film with their producing partner James Weaver and Kyle Hunter and Ariel Shaffir to write the film, under their Point Grey Pictures banner.

[24] On 1 April 2018, Google Maps added a minigame in which one can look for Wally and his friends around the world[25] – in the Andes (Chile), Surfers Paradise beach (Australia), in the Pyeongchang Olympic Stadium (South Korea), at the La Tomatina festival (Spain), in Hollywood and in the Picard crater on the Moon.

[26] In 2009, 1,052 students, alumni, and members of the community at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey, captured the Guinness World Record for the largest gathering of people dressed as Wally.

In 2011, the previous record was broken when 3,872 people dressed as Wally gathered in Merrion Square, Dublin, Ireland.

The re-creation featured all of the characters, Wally, Wenda, Wizard Whitebeard, Odlaw, and Woof, hiding throughout downtown Chicago and invited others to come and find them.