In the United States, Maxim is an industry leader, reporting a circulation of 2.5 million readers which they claim is enough to outsell leading competitors GQ, Esquire, and Details combined. The magazine is now using the brand name to market a myriad of other magazines and projects.

The first issue of Maxim was released in the United Kingdom in May 1995 with Lisa Snowdon on the cover. The first American issue was released on April 1, 1997 with Christa Miller as the cover model.

The magazine is known for its extensive pictorials of scantily clad women. The U.S. version of the magazine, unlike some foreign versions, does not allow the depiction of nipples or genitalia. In the U.S., Maxim is readily available from most newsstands and retailers. A notable exception is Wal-Mart, the country's largest retailer. Wal-Mart has gone to great lengths to promote itself as being "family-friendly", and although Maxim does not contain total nudity, its sexual suggestiveness caused Wal-Mart to not sell the magazine in the United States. American audiences have voiced concern about the content of Maxim as well as one of Dennis Publishing's other periodicals, Bizarre, the latter a particularly unusual magazine that seems to have found little audience in the United States. The allusion of the slang word for heroin is seen in the title Stuff, making that magazine also controversial in the American market. "Why Stuff?," Americans ask.

For the UK version, prior to 1997, the magazine seldom shot their own cover photos of female models. When they did, the models were generally not well-known, although some did become famous later on; for example, for the July 1996 cover, Maxim editors used the then Wonderbra model Sophie Anderton. Most of their cover photos, though, were pre-existing photos which they brought or paid royalties for. One of the most famous "bought" cover photos was the classic black and white photo of Ursula Andress from the 1962 Bond film Dr. No; this photo was used as a reference for a Bond girl feature in their August 1995 issue. These earlier issues tended to be article heavy and coverage of scantily clad women was kept to a minimum (this was before FHM made the use of scantily clad celebrities popular).

Aside from pictorials, features of the magazine include short articles on subjects such as sports, movies, television, video games, fashion, relationships, cars, crime, and alcohol—subjects considered to be of interest to the magazine's primary audience of men between the ages of 21 and 45. Every issue also features extensive reviews and endorsements of new products in these fields.

Maxim competes with several lad mags including Stuff (owned by the same company) and FHM. It has proved particularly successful in the United States, and is the best-selling men's lifestyle magazine in the world. However, Maxim's sales (still very significant) in its country of origin are dwarfed by those of FHM; during the first half of 2006, FHM outsold Maxim by almost 3:1 in the UK market