Many auditions for boy/girl bands turned up ill-fated, only a few survived and The Wanted are one of them. In 2009, Jayne Collins held a mass audition because she wanted to form a boyband after successfully launching The Saturdays and Parade. Upon selection, Collins picked Max George, Siva Kaneswaran, Jay McGuiness, Tom Parker and Nathan Sykes out of the thousands. 

Straight away they worked on their debut album before nailing the perfect name for the band. On how they eventually landed the moniker, Nathan said in an interview, "Basically what happened was we just finished a track which is going to be on the album and it’s based on the Wild West theme, like The Good, The Bad, The Ugly. And now we have made some wanted posters, like mug shots for ourselves." 

The band were backed up by established producers like Guy Chambers, Taio Cruz and Steve Mac. The debut single "All Time Low" was released in summer 2010 to a delighting result. The song went straight to number two on the U.K. Singles Chart, propelling the young band's name in the industry. "All Time Low" was followed by "Heart Vacancy" before the self-titled album was released on October ...

25, 2010. It landed at number four on the U.K. Albums Chart in the first week of release. 

2011–12: Battleground, The Wanted: The EP and international breakthrough

In January 2011, the group began to work on their second studio album. The album featured writing credits from the band members on ten of the fifteen tracks, as well as contributions from Steve Mac, Wayne Hector, Ed Drewett, Diane Warren and Guy Chambers. The album's lead single, "Gold Forever", was released in aid of Comic Relief and debuted at number three on the UK Singles Chart. In July 2011, the group released the album's second single, "Glad You Came", which became their second number-one single, staying there for two weeks, and in the top ten of the chart for six weeks. The single also reached number one in Ireland and remained there for five weeks. The song also charted in some European territories, and was very successful in Australia. The third single from the album, "Lightning", was released on 16 October 2011, peaking at number 2 in the UK and number 5 in Ireland. The fourth single, "Warzone", was released on 26 December 2011, with the music video and radio debut coming in early November 2011. On 7 November 2011, the group's second album Battleground was released. It debuted at number 5 in the UK and number 4 in Ireland. It has since been certified Platinum in the UK. In addition to shows in the United Kingdom including T4 on the Beach, V Festival and the iTunes Festival, the group supported Canadian singer Justin Bieber in Brazil on 8 and 9 October 2011 and also supported Britney Spears on her Femme Fatale Tour at the Manchester Evening News Arena on 6 November 2011.

Between 15 February and 9 March 2012, the group embarked on "The Code" tour, to promote the release of the album. The 16-date arena tour saw the group play in thirteen cities in England, Wales, Scotland, Ireland and Northern Ireland. Known as #TheCodeTour, each concert featured an interactive element that linked to the group's official Facebook and Twitter pages.

In a bid to break into the United States market, The Wanted went on a short promotional radio and club tour of the United States, touring between 17 January to 8 February 2012. The success of the 10-date tour led to the group's official release of their debut American single, "Glad You Came". It peaked at number three on the Billboard Hot 100 and has since sold over 3 million copies there. Their debut American EP, The Wanted: The EP, was released in April 2012, debuting at number seven in the US and number eight in Canada. "Chasing the Sun" was released as the band's second official single there, peaking at number 50 on the BillboardHot 100 whilst also reaching number one on the Hot Dance Club Songs chart. "Chasing the Sun" was released on 21 May 2012. On 22 May 2012, the band opened and performed at the first Q102's Springle Ball concert. On 14 June 2012 the band performed a concert at New York City's Beacon Theater, which was also broadcast live on music television station Fuse. The group visited Australia and New Zealand for the promotion of their extended play in August 2012. Following their promotional tour of Australia, the group headed to the US for a number of promotional concerts.

2012–13: Word of Mouth, The Wanted Life and world tour

The Wanted began working on their third studio album shortly after the release of Battleground on 4 November 2011. In May 2012, "Chasing the Sun" was released as the album's lead single, and the third single from the band's The Wanted: The EP in the United States. Around this time, the band also premiered a brand new track called "Satellite", which was co-written by Ryan Tedder of OneRepublic. In August 2012, the band filmed a music video in Los Angeles, reportedly for their brand new single, "I Found You". However, when the video for "I Found You" was released in October 2012, it was a different one. The band later revealed that they had reshot the video in London, not being satisfied with the first one. The original was later released as the "fan version" on VEVO. "I Found You" was released on 5 November 2012 as the album's second single.

 The band confirmed in September 2012 that the album would contain a number of collaborations, including tracks with Pitbull, LMFAO, Chris Brown, Rita Ora and Dappy. In November 2012, the band revealed that the album had been pushed back from the original release of 3 December 2012 to February 2013 at their request; the reason stated for this delay was to perfect the album, and "tweak out a few insecurities involving certain tracks". It was confirmed that the album would feature a track co-written by fellow label-mate Justin Bieber.

In early February 2013, it was announced that The Wanted would star in their own reality series called The Wanted Life which premiered internationally in Autumn 2013. The show is produced by Ryan Seacrest. In the United States, it premiered on E! on 2 June 2013. In April 2013, the band announced the release of the third single from their third album, titled "Walks like Rihanna", named after Barbadian singer Rihanna. It was released on 23 June 2013 and debuted and peaked at number 4 on the UK Singles Chart. On 9 September 2013, the band announced that their new album Word of Mouth would be released on 4 November. It was preceded by the release of "We Own the Night" and "Show Me Love (America)".

On 7 October 2013, it was revelaed that The Wanted will embark on their first ever world tour, the Word of Mouth Tour, in 2014. The tour will include shows in the UK, Europe, the US and Canada.

2014-present: Hiatus

On January 22, 2014, the band announced that they would be taking a hiatus after their current tour and pursuing solo endeavors for a while, but that they would work again together in the future.