This term began to appear at the beginning of the 20th century when wealthy individuals constructed large private yachts for personal pleasure. Examples of early luxury motor yachts include the Cox & King yachts, M/Y (motor yacht) Christina O and M/Y Savarona. Early luxury sailing yachts include America’s Cup classic J class racers like S/Y (sailing yacht) Endeavour and Sir Thomas Lipton’s S/Y Shamrock. The New York Yacht Club hosted many early luxury sailing yacht events at Newport, Rhode Island, during the Gilded Age.

etween 1997 and 2008 there was a massive growth in the number, size, and popularity of large private or Super luxury yachts. This was in the 24 to 70 meter size range. Luxury yachts, megayachts, or superyachts typically have no real home port as such, although a yacht must be registered in a port of the country to which flag state it is registered in. Popular flag state registrars for large yachts are Cayman Islands, Marshall Islands, Isle of Man, British Virgin Islands among others. (Many times the yacht will have never been to these ports.) They are particularly bountiful in the Mediterranean in summer and the Caribbean Sea in winter. Many can be chartered (rented) for sums of up to 1 million Euro for a week. There may be up to 1500 Large yachts available to Charter in a season in the Mediterranean. (Yachts that go back and forth between the Caribbean and Mediterranean in the winter and summer are said to be doing the Milk Run.) The arrival of large commercial ships that have been specially outfitted to take multiple Large yachts across the Atlantic ocean have created a much larger Charter market in the Caribbean than ever before. Yachts will dock in a port of choosing while the crew does maintenance work and waits for owners or guests to arrive. The vessels then will do short cruises with the owners and/or guests aboard. Typical destinations in Spain and the French and Italian Rivieras include Cannes, Antibes, St. Tropez, Monte Carlo, Portofino, Porto Cervo, Puerto Banús, Puerto Portals and Palma, Majorca, although increasingly luxury yachts are cruising in more remote areas of the world. Antigua is one of the main ports in the Windward Islands of the Caribbean] and hosts a Charter Show at the beginning of the winter season.

While the demand for new luxury yachts has slowed somewhat since 2009, 2011 has seen a small rebound with launches from many of the top yards. The latest launch, M/Y Eclipse, built by Blohm + Voss for Russian businessman Roman Abramovich is the largest yacht in the world., though by 2014 it will be outranked by a project measuring more than 590 feet (180 meters) that is under construction at Lurssen. Luxury boat building and yacht charter companies are predominantly based in the United States and Western Europe but are also increasingly found in New Zealand, Asia and Eastern Europe.

Giga yachts is a hyperbolic term that first emerged in reference to megayachts, a.k.a. superyachts, in the mid-2000s. Power & Motoryacht magazine’s popular Megayachts forum, which was online from the early 1990s to 2012 (now offline), had an ongoing discussion about the term, since luxury yachts at that time were getting larger and larger, exceeding 300 feet in length (about 100 meters). The words megayacht and superyacht mean the same thing, despite the term superyacht being more prevalent in Europe and non-U.S. countries these days. In fact, the word megayacht was coined first, ascribed to famed yacht broker George Nicholson by Power & Motoryacht in one of its first issues in 1985 as well as subsequent media reports elsewhere.

As of 2012 yachts above 100 metres (328 feet) are still rare but increasingly more common, with an estimated 24 on the water. They typically have five decks above the water line and one below. They incorporate many of the same features that smaller megayachts do, such as helicopter landing areas and swimming pools, though given their extra length, they also feature helicopter hangars and miniature submarines.

Each year, at the end of September, a regatta is held in the bay of Saint-Tropez (Les Voiles de St. Tropez). This is a draw for many yachts, some up to 50 metres in length. Many tourists come to the location for this event or as a stop on their trip to Cannes, Marseille or Nice.